vUiliT    ]l       'Wif 


MANAGEMENT 

0/ 

■nffi  AMERICAN  SOLDIER 


B9 

MAJOR  GENERAL  DAVID  C.  SHANKS 
National  Arm^i 


FOREWORD 

Mr.  Thomas  F.  Ryan  has  two  sons  in  our  army,  and 
is  deeply  interested  in  whatever  pertains  to  the  welfare 
of  the  military  service. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ryan*have  provided  an  extensive  and 
comfortable  Officers'  Home  for  the  benefit  of  officers 
who  are  passing  through  New  York  en  route  to  ser- 
vice overseas,  and  they  are  now  building  an  attractive 
Officers'  Club  at  Camp  Mills,  the  large  Embarkation 
Camp  near  Mineola,  Long*  Island.  Sometime  ago  in 
conversation  with  Mr.  Ryan  I  expressed  the  belief  that 
the  greatest  weakness  of  our  young  officers  was  their 
lack  of  practical  knowledge  and  experience  in  the 
handling  of  men,  and  that  there  was  no  book  known  to 
me  which  covered  this  field.  Mr.  Ryan  generously 
offered  to  publish  a  booklet  on  this  subject  if  I  would 
write  it. 

The  best  part  of  this  publication  therefore — the  fact 
that  it  costs  nothing  to  the  officer  who  reads  it — is  due 
to  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Ryan. 


383980 


INTRODUCTION 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  war  the  authorized 
strength  of  the  United  States  Army,  exclusive  of. 
Philippine  Scouts,  was  as  follows: 

Officers 7,038 

Enlisted  men  132,122 

Since  our  entrance  into  the  war  we  have  increased 
the  number  of  our  officers  by  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  and  the  number  of  our  enlisted  soldiers  by 
more  than  one  and  a  half  million.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  this  enormous  expansion  in  our  military 
forces  has  been  a  task  of  great  difficulty.  Our  country 
has  always  been  opposed  to  a  large  standing  army 
and  the  policy  of  our  Government  has  always  been 
peculiarly  non-military  in  character. 

The  material  which  has  been  used  in  the  rapid  ex- 
pansion of  our  army  is  excellent.  Sterling  young  col- 
lege men  have  been  put  through  the  various  training 
camps  and  their  progress  has  been  quite  satisfactory. 
They  have  worked  hard  and  have  absorbed  much  of 
the  technical  training  that  is  required  in  modern  war- 
fare. All  sorts  of  textbooks,  manuals,  and  pamph- 
lets, combined  with  the  explanations  and  lectures  of 
selected  instructors,  have  given  them  at  least  a  fair 
smattering  of  the  subjects  which  are  essential  for 
them  to  know. 


There  is  one  respect,  however,  in  which  a  great 
many  of  these  young  men  are  deficient.  My  duties 
at  a  Port  of  Embarkation,  through  which  a  great 
body  of  troops  pass,  have  given  me  opportunity  to 
see  something  of  a  considerable  number  of  our  new 
officers  and  to  size  up  their  weak  as  well  as  their 
strong  points.  I  am  quite  sure  of  my  ground  when  I 
say  that  the  weakest  point  in  the  training  of  our 
young  officers  is  their  lack  of  knowledge  and  expe- 
rience in  the  handling  and  management  of  their  men. 

Men  are  the  tools  of  the  military  profession.  With- 
out at  least  a  fair  knowledge  of. how  to  use  those 
tools  the  young  officer  is  likely  to  lose  much  of  his 
efficiency.  Beyond  question  the  management  of  men 
is  the  most  important,  as  well  as  the  most  difficult 
thing  that  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  line  officer.  No 
amount  of  technical  training  or  of  technical  knowl- 
edge on  the  part  of  the  line  officer  can  make  him 
truly  efficient  if  he  does  not  possess  the  power  of 
controlling  his  men  in  such  a  way  as  to  preserve  har- 
mony in  his  organization  and  bring  out  the  best  ef- 
forts of  those  under  his  control. 

Strange  to  say,  the  young  officer  seeking  some 
written  guide  to  assist  him  in  learning  this  impor- 
tant part  of  his  profession  will  have  great  difficulty. 
We  have  lectures  and  manuals  and  treatises  and 
textbooks  on  all  sorts  of  technical  subjects.  On  the 
subject  of  how  to  manage  men — the  most  important 
subject   of  all — the   young    officer    will    find    pretty 

4 


nearly  a  barren  field.  A  few  paragraphs  in  Army 
Regulations,  a  few  scattered  magazine  articles,  and 
a  general  order  or  two,  compose  the  literature  avail- 
able. Neither  at  West  Point  nor  at  our  service 
schools,  has  this  subject  received  the  attention  that  it 
deserves.  /  pparently  our  young  officers  are  expected 
to  pick  up  this  part  of  their  training  by  intuition  and 
observation.  Experience  is  the  best  teacher,  but  it 
is  a  slow  and  costly  process  for  the  young  officer  to 
have  to  learn  the  rudiments  of  this  important  part  of 
his  profession  by  feeling  his  way  along,  profiting  only 
by  the  mistakes  he  may  make.  It  is  an  especially 
costly  process  if  the  young  officer  has  to  pick  up  this 
important  part  of  his  education  while  his  country  is 
at  war  and  when  each  mistake  may  add  another  to 
his  already  numerous  difficulties. 

At  the  present  time  we  have  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  soldiers  under  command  of  young  officers 
without  any  sufficient  practical  experience  in  the 
management  of  men  and  who  are  groping  their  way, 
doing  the  best  they  can  according  to  the  lights  that 
are  furnished  them.  I  am  convinced  that  something 
ought  to  be  written  in  the  effort  to  help  our  young 
officers  in  this  most  important  part  of  their  profes- 
sion. Anything  at  all  will  be  better  than  nothing.  In 
the  Infantry  Journal  for  November-December,  1916,  I 
published  an  article  on  "Administration  and  the  Man- 
agement of  Men." 

This  present  article  is  an  enlargement  and  expansion 

5 


of  that.  In  its  preparation  I  have  consulted  such  addi- 
tional literature  as  my  limited  time  has  afforded  me 
opportunity.      In   particular   I    mention   the    following: 

Military  Character — By  Admiral  Sims,  pub- 
lished in  the  Infantry  Journal  for  February, 
1918. 

Psychology  of  War — By  Eltinge. 

Fundamentals  of  Military  Service — By  And- 
rev^s. 

Lectures  on  Discipline  and  Training — By 
Colonel  Applin  of  the  British  General  Staff. 

Mimeograph  publication  on  "Military  Char- 
acter" published  by  the  Naval  War  College. 

No  claim  for  originality  is  made  for  any  idea  sug- 
gested herein.  I  am  v^riting  this  largely  from  a 
sense  of  duty  because  I  think  that  some  one  of  our 
older  officers  should  do  something  in  this  line.  1  know 
that  it  is  needed.  That  this  present  article  is  crude  and 
filled  with  imperfections  must  be  evident,  but  it  may 
serve  as  an  incentive  for  some  one  else  to  prepare  an 
article  that  is  really  worth  while. 

In  no  other  profession  is  the  study  of  men  so  import- 
ant as  it  is  in  the  military  profession.  To  us  Pope's 
line,  "The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man,"  appeals 
with  peculiar  force. 

My  effort  in  this  article  is  to  avoid  prolonged  dis- 
cussion. The  suggestions  made  are  concrete.  Many  of 
the  items  noted  are  elementary  in  the  extreme,  but  they 
are  those  that  constantly  present  themselves.  What  the 
young  officer  needs  is  definite  instruction,  not  a  sermon. 


GENERAL  STATEMENT 

As  a  rule  the  American  people  have  a  most  excellent 
opinion  of  themselves.  They  are  imbued  with  the  idea 
that  individually  and  collectively  the  American  in  all 
things  is  at  the  top  of  the  heap. 

Apparently  as  a  nation  we  have  been  ready  to  believe 
that  by  intuition,  and  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  we 
could  accomplish  what  has  cost  other  nations  years  of 
effort  and  self-sacrtfice.  On  no  other  theory  can  we 
account  for  our  national  indifference  to  a  proper  state 
of  preparedness.  The  idea  that  a  million  men  would 
spring  to  arms  between  sunrise  and  sunset  was  popular 
with  many  of  our  fellow  countrymen  because  it  was 
what  they  wanted  to  believe.  From  these  halcyon 
dreams  our  people  have  been  rudely  awakened.  They 
now  realize  that  military  preparation  is  a  matter  of 
time  and  much  hard  work. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  proper  time  to  start  the 
training  of  a  gentleman  is  a  hundred  years  before  his 
birth.  It  is  beginning  to  dawn  upon  many  of  us  that 
the  proper  time  to  prepare  for  war  is  at  least  a  genera- 
tion before  the  war  must  be  fought.  Under  any  cir- 
cumstances the  making  of  an  army  from  the  raw  ma- 
terial is  a  slow  and  difficult  process ;  it  is  especially 
difficult  when  the  raw  material  comes  from  a  nation  in 
which  the  military  spirit  is  almost  wholly  lacking.  Our 
people,  wholly  unaccustomed  to  military  affairs  and 
deeply  absorbed  in  business  pursuits,  have  apparently 
believed  that  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  a  soldier  is 
to  put  a  uniform  on  his  back  and  a  gun  in  his  hands. 
The  young  American  of  best  type  makes  excellent  ma- 

7 


terial  for  a  soldier,  but  it  takes  time  and  great  patience 
to  produce  the  finished  product.  In  the  case  of  the 
average  native  American  his  physical  powers,  his  initi- 
ative, his  resourcefulness,  his  courage,  and  his  intelli- 
gence are  all  of  a  high  order.  Nevertheless,  he  has 
some  inherent  disadvantages  as  a  soldier  v^^hich  our  na- 
tion has  been  slow  to  realize. 

Frankness  and  a  desire  to  look  at  all  sides  fairly 
should  prompt  us  to  recognize  some^f  the  weak  points 
of  the  young  American  as  well  as  to  admire  those 
points  where  he  undoubtedly  appears  to  advantage. 

SOME  DISADVANTAGES 

First  and  foremost  in  the  way  of  difficulties  is  the 
matter  of  environment  The  young  American  has  been 
bred  and  born  in  an  atmosphere  distinctly  non^military. 
From  his  earliest  youth  he  has  been  accustomed  to  ideas 
of  great  individual  independence.  Distinctly  he  has 
been  his  own  boss.  In  certain  sections  of  the  country 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  has  had  opportunity  to  ab- 
sorb prejudices  against  military  training  and  against 
the  uniform  of  the  army  and  navy.  The  average  young 
American  has  been  accustomed  to  hearing  his  govern- 
ment freely  criticised,  and  perhaps  himself  has  already 
become  an  expert  critic. 

Now  the  first  and  most  important  lesson  in  the  life 
of  every  soldier  is  discipline  and  obedience.  Without 
discipline  military  instruction  is  in  vain.  One  of  the 
most  difficult  things  to  instil  in  the  young  American 
soldier  is  a  proper  conception  of  the  enormous,  the  in- 
dispensable value  of  discipline.  The  American  is  born 
in  a  democratic  country  where  all  men  are  equal  and 

8 


where  every  man  is  accustomed  to  making  up  his  mind 
as  he  goes  along.  Hence  it  is  that  many  sterling  young 
Americans  find  the  first  few  months  of  military  train- 
ing extremely  irksome.  The  requirement  of  suddenly 
giving  up  their  own  will  and  rendering  prompt  and 
willing  obedience  to  the  will  of  others  is  not  easy;  it 
is  especially  hard  on  the  young  men  of  our  democratic 
country  accustomed  to  having  their  own  way  in  every- 
thing. Right  here  is  one  of  the  prime  causes  of  deser- 
tion. The  recruit  accustomed  to  doing  as  he  likes  finds 
the  lessons  of  discipline  very  trying,  and  makes  up  his 
mind  that  he  will  go  back  to  a  life  rid  of  such  annoy- 
ances. For  a  time  he  is  like  a  wild  animal  suddenly 
taken  captive  and  that  longs  for  its  former  freedom. 
The  first  months  of  a  soldier's  training  are  always  the 
most  trying.  Once  the  soldier  has  gotten  over  the  first 
bumps  the  bonds  of  discipline  become  less  galling  and 
the  attractive  part  of  a  soldier's  life  begins.  It  is  in 
these  first  months  of  the  life  of  a  young  soldier  that 
the  officer  needs  to  be  most  careful  and  most  patient. 

It  is  different  with  the  young  soldier  of  a  country 
(Japan  or  Germany,  for  instance),  where  military  train- 
ing is  compulsory.  From  childhood  he  has  been  reared 
in  a  military  atmosphere.  The  ideas  of  discipline  are 
absorbed  as  he  grows  up.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
the  task  of  the  officer  is  immeasurably  easier  in  a 
country  where  military  training  is  welcomed  rather  than 
in  our  own  country  where  it  is  tolerated  only  when 
<iire  necessity  forces  it  upon  us : 

While  we  are  about  it  we  may  as  well  confess 
that  there  are  national  habits  that  greatly  increase  the 
9 


difficulty  of  managing  the  American  soldier.  I  remem- 
ber once  to  have  seen  the  sailors  of  an  entire  Japa- 
nese squadron  given  shore  liberty  in  a  town  where 
saloons  were  quite  plentiful.  They  were  put  ashore  in 
the  early  morning,  and  were  told  that  the  last  boats 
to  take  them  back  to  their  ships  would  leave  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  At  that  hour  the  last  Jap  went 
back,  and  of  the  nearly  two  thousand  sailors  not  one 
had  become  intoxicated.  He  would  be  an  optimist  of 
highest  degree  who  would  be  willing  to  believe  that 
two  thousand  American  soldiers  or  sailors  could  be 
turned  loose  in  a  city  where  whiskey  is  both  cheap  and 
plentiful,  and  yet  find  every  man  fit  for  duty  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening. 

I  do  not  make  this  statement  either  to  detract  from 
the  American  or  to  extol  the  Jap.  My  only  idea  is  to 
show  that  the  American  officer  will  find  certain  diffi- 
culties by  reason  of  inherited  national  frailties.  Since 
our  entrance  into  the  present  war  the  prohibition  of  the 
sale  of  intoxicants  to  men  in  uniform  has  done  much 
to  improve  the  temperance  of  our  men.  It  is  useless, 
however,  to  deny  that  the  existing  law  has  been,  and  is 
being  violated  in  numerous  ways.  So  far  as  the  in- 
terests of  our  army  are  concerned,  it  will  certainly  be 
best  if  the  constitutional  amendment  is  enacted  giving 
national  prohibition  to  the  country. 

America  is  a  composite  nation  embracing  many  dis- 
tinct elements.  The  great  national  melting  pot  has  not 
yet  made  us  one  homogeneous  people  with  easily  dis- 
tinguished national  characteristics.  This  fact  adds 
greatly  to  the  difficulty  of  the  American  officer.  It  is 
10 


a  well  known  fact  in  our  army  that  some  officers  who 
succeed  admirably  with  white  troops  fail  entirely  when 
they  come  on  duty  with  our  negro  soldiers.  This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  do  not  understand  the  negro- 
character,  and  success  comes  most  frequently  to  any 
officer  when  he  is  managing  men  with  whose  character- 
istics he  is  entirely  familiar. 

Take  the  average  white  American  company.  It  will 
be  composed  of  men  of  many  nationalities.  The  Irish, 
the  Swede,  the  Pole,  the  Jew,  the  Italian,  and  many 
others  will  be  represented.  These  men  possess  widely 
different  characteristics.  They  cannot  all  be  managed 
upon  the  same  plan.  In  our  country  all  men  are  equal, 
but  all  soldiers  are  not  equal — not  by  a  jugful.  The 
officer  who  would  try  to  manage  the  timid,  well-mean- 
ing Swede  by  the  same  means  which  he  would  probably 
have  to  use  in  controlling  the  Bowery  tough,  would 
have  no  more  success  than  the  parent  who  uses  the 
same  method  in  dealing  with  the  timid,  shrinking  child 
that  he  is  forced  to  use  when  dealing  with  the  head- 
strong and  wilful  one.  This  fact,  then,  that  we  are  a 
composite  people  possessing  the  characteristics  of  many 
different  peoples  adds  much  to  the  difficulties  of  our 
officers  in  the  management  of  their  men. 

QUALIFICATIONS  OF  OFFICERS 

A  large  book  might  be  written  and  still  leave  the 
subject  far  from  exhausted.  Of  all  essential  qualities, 
sound  common  sense  is  easily  first  and  foremost.  With- 
out this  indispensable  sine  qua  non,  'no  officer  can  hope 
to  be  successful  in  the  management  of  men. 
11 


Even  with  sound  sense  as  a  foundation  there  is  the 
greatest  difference  among  officers  in  respect  to  their 
ability  to  manage  men.  There  are  some  officers  who 
will  never  make  good  with  troops,  no  matter  how  hard 
they  may  try.  They  lack  a  certain  indefinable,  in- 
tangible something  that  spells  the  difference  between 
success  and  failure.  Just  as  there  are  men  who  may 
study  music  a  lifetime  and  never  learn  music,  so  there 
are  officers  who  may  study  hard  and  never  learn  the 
mastery  of  the  infinitely  more  difficult  chords  that 
control  human  nature. 

I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  any  officer,  however  gifted 
by  nature,  ever  attains  full  stature  except  by  one 
means — unceasing  observation  and  unceasing  effort. 
There  is  a  widespread  idea  that  a  great  leader  like 
Napoleon  is  the  heir  to  a  heaven-born  gift  that  raises 
him  beyond  the  level  of  all  his  contemporaries.  But 
let  the  truth  be  known  for  the  encouragement  of  all 
who  are  willing  to  attain  eminence  as  Napoleon  attained 
his — by  hard  work.  In  his  youth  that  which  disting- 
uished Napoleon  from  his  fellows  was  his  constant 
reading,  his  habit  of  taking  many  notes,  and  his  power 
of  application.  He  himself  has  said  that  the  power  of 
applying  military  principles  readily  and  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment  came  to  him  by  always  thinking  of  them. 
Success  came  to  Napoleon  as  it  comes  to  most  officers, 
through  constant  endeavor.  It  is  not  my  intention  to 
enter  into  a  long  drawn  out  discussion  of  the  qualities 
needed  by  the  officer  on  duty  with  troops.  It  is  better 
to  touch  upon  these  qualities  in  the  discussion  of  the 
relations  between  the  officer  and  those  under  his  com- 
mand. 

12 


TREATMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SOLDIER 
BY  HIS  OFFICER 

In  the  first  place,  treat  the  soldier  as  a  man.  Treat 
him  as  you  would  yourself  like  to  be  treated  were  you 
in  his  place  and  he  in  yours.  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
that  the  soldier  should  be  coddled — far  from  it.  But 
you  can  be  exacting,  you  can  require  the  most  punctili- 
ous observance  of  orders  and  regulations,  and  yet  do  it 
without  nagging  or  irritating  the  men  under  your  com- 
mand. 

Some  officers  lack  the  backbone  to  require  the  proper 
performance  of  duty  on  the  part  of  their  men,  lest  it 
render  them  unpopular.  They  are  willing  to  play  a 
namby  pamby  part  because  they  cannot  muster  cour- 
age to  exact  from  their  men  a  proper  performance  of 
duty.  Let  the  young  officer  examine  himself  right  here. 
If  he  cannot  muster  the  moral  courage  to  do  his  duty 
he  can  never  expect  to  train  his  men  to  do  theirs. 
Right  here  is  the  beginning  of  inefficiency.  Many  is  the 
officer  I  have  known  and  who  must  himself  have  known 
that  he  lacked  the  backbone  to  say  no  when  that  was 
the  answer  which  ought  to  be  given.  Any  young  officer 
can  easily  examine  himself.  If  he  cannot  correct  faults, 
if  he  cannot  deny  his  men  when  they  ought  to  be  de- 
nied, then  the  officer  has  missed  his  calling  and  he  is 
likely  to  prove  a  failure. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  need  to  be  a  martinet. 
No  useful  purpose  is  accomplished  by  a  constant 
nagging  and  scolding  on  the  part  of  the  officer. 

On  a  bronze  tablet  at  the  main  sally  port  at  West 
Point  is  the  following  extract  from  an  address  to 
13 


cadets  by  Major  General  John  M.  Schofield,  Superin- 
tendent of  West  Point,  August  ii,  1879.  Let  the  young 
officer  study  it  carefully  for  it  contains  much  excellent 
advice : 

The  discipline  which  makes  the  soldiers  of  a 
free  country  reliable  in  battle  is  not  to  be 
gained  by  harsh  or  tyrannical  treatment. 

On  the  contrary,  such  treatment  is  far  more 
likely  to  destroy  than  to  make  an  army. 

It  is  possible  to  impart  instruction  and  give 
commands  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  tone 
of  voice  as  to  inspire  in  the  soldier  no  feeling 
but  an  intense  desire  to  obey. 

While  the  opposite  manner  and  tone  of  voice 
cannot  fail  to  excite  strong  resentment  and  a 
desire  to  disobey. 

The  one  mode  or  the  other  of  dealing  w^ith 
subordinates  springs  from  a  corresponding 
spirit  in  the  breast  of  the  commander. 

He  who  feels  the  respect  which  is  due  to 
others  canot  fail  to  inspire  in  them  regard  for 
himself. 

While  he  who  feels  and  hence  manifests  dis- 
respect toward  others,  especially  his  inferiors, 
cannot  fail  to  inspire  hatred  against  himself. 
INCULCATING  PRIDE  OF  THE  SOLDIER  IN 
HIMSELF  AND  IN  HIS  RECORD 
Of  all  influences  over  mankind  few  are  so  powerful 
and  so  far  reaching  as  pride.    We  often  hear  it  said  of 
an  individual  that  "he  did  not  know  what  fear  meant." 
I   do  not  believe  it  for  a  moment.     When  danger  of 
death  is  near  all  men  fear  it.     There  are  some  men — 
14 


many  men — who  overcome  that  fear,  and  they  are 
rightly  called  brave;  there  are  other  men  who  succumb 
to  that  fear  and  we  dub  them  cowards.^  The  same 
man  may  overcome  his  fear  on  one  occasion,  and  on  the 
very  next  occasion  may  yield  to  it. 

Now  there  is  no  other  influence  that  holds  a  soldier 
in  the  battle  line  so  well  as  pride.  He  fears  the  jeers 
and  the  contempt  of  his  companions  more  than  he  fears 
the  bullets  of  the  enemy.  It  is  pride  in  his  good  name 
and  in  his  fair  reputation  that  holds  him  to  the  mark. 
A  regiment  which  has  once  earned  a  reputation  for 
bravery  will  stick  and  fight  on  to  the  death  because 
of  its  pride.  Now  pride  of  the  soldier  in  himself  and 
'n  his  reputation  is  a  tremendous  asset  in  the  every 
day  management  of  the  soldier,  provided  the  officer 
knows  how  to  turn  it  to  account-  Every  normal  man 
has  an  earnest  desire  to  succeed,  and  feels  a  deep  in- 
terest in  winning  success.  Judicious  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  officer  will  build  up  a  feeling  of  pride  in  the 
soldier  that  will  be  most  useful. 

Therefore,  the  officer  ought  to  be  most  careful  to 
avoid  any  act  that  will  tend  to  destroy  the  self-respect, 
the  feeling  of  pride  of  the  soldier  in  himself  and  in 
his  record.  Never  put  a  young  soldier  in  the  guard 
house  for  the  first  time  if  it  is  possible  to  avoid  it — 
not  until  you  are  sure  that  no  other  course  will  answer. 
When  you  put  a  soldier  in  the  guard  house  you  run 
the  risk  of  bringing  upon  him  a  feeling  of  degradation 
and  of  discouragement,  and  you  run  the  greater  risk  of 
injuring  that  great  asset — his  pride  in  himself. 

When  I  was  a  young  lieutenant  I  had  a  captain  whose 
15 


method  of  controlling  his  men  in  case  of  dereliction 
was  to  call  them  one  by  one  into  the  orderly  room,  and 
appeal  to  tkeir  sense  of  pride,  both  in  themselves  as 
well  as  in  the  company.  I  have  since  seen  many  officers 
who  were  abler,  and  more  efficient,  and  more  valuable 
to  the  Government,  but  I  have  seen  few  who  knew 
better  how  to  bring  out  the  best  there  was  in  a  soldier. 

PRIDE  OF  THE  SOLDIER    IN  HIS 
ORGANIZATION 

In  these  days  when  our  few  permanent  organizations 
have  been  torn  to  pieces  in  the  effort  to  provide  seasoned 
material  for  units  just  being  formed,  it  seems  ridiculous 
for  anyone  to  talk  about  pride  in  the  organization  to 
which  the  soldier  belongs.  Yet  the  time  may  come,  and 
that  soon,  when  there  will  be  many  American  soldiers 
who  will  justly  know  and  justly  glory  in  the  pride  of 
the  unit  to  which  they  belong.  It  may  soon  be  that  we 
shall  have  American  organizations  who  have  won  their 
title  to  be  placed  beside  those  famous  organizations  in 
history  that  have  made  their  names  immortal. 

General  Sherman  once  said  that  an  army  had  a  soul 
as  well  as  a  man.  This  is  true,  and  it  is  also  true  that 
a  company  has  a  soul  as  well  as  an  army. 

The  pride  of  the  soldier  in  his  organization  may  be 
made  a  most  useful  influence  in  the  ordinary  routine 
administration  of  a  company.  As  illustrative  of  the 
beneficial  influence  of  company  pride  in  ordinary  every 
day  management  of  men,  I  may  relate  the  following: 

In  the  summer  of  1886,  I  was  at  Fort  Leavenworth 
attending  a  rifle  competition.  At  that  time,  no  regi- 
16 


ment  nor  even  any  considerable  part  of  any  one  regi- 
ment was  stationed  there.  It  was  the  custom  to  select 
one  company  or  one  troop  from  each  of  several  differ- 
ent regiments  and  to  send  it  to  Leavenworth  as  a  part 
of  the  garrison.  In  1886  they  were  casting  about  for 
an  infantry  company — they  wanted  a  good  one — one  that 
would  set  a  proper  standard  for  the  student  officers. 
The  choice  fell  upon  Company  K,  13th  Infantry,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Arthur  McArthur,  Jr.  It  was  a 
wise  choice,  and  I  shall  not  forget  that  company,  small 
in  numbers  but  so  abounding  in  spirit  and  pride  as  to 
be  notable. 

The  men  all  knew  why  the  company  had  been  sent  to 
Fort  Leavenworth.  Every  man  felt  that  a  great  onus 
was  on  him  individually.  The  line  at  parade  showed 
service  stripes  on  nearly  every  man  from  wrist  to  elbow. 
When  the  company  was  dismissed  no  man  sallied  forth 
from  the  barracks  who  was  not  so  spick  and  span  as  to 
be  a  marked  man  at  yards'  distance.  For  a  man  with 
"K  Company,  13th  Infantry,"  on  his  cap  to  be  sent  to 
the  guard  house  would  have  been  a  calamity.  There 
were  stories  of  how  one  or  two,  over-bibulous  after 
pay  day,  had  been  brought  in  the  back  way  by  compan- 
ions lest  some  one  might  see  a  K  Company  man  at  a 
disadvantage. 

When  I  was  a  "youngster,"  I  was  serving  at  a  large 
post  at  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  Post  Can- 
teen. Everything  connected  with  the  running  of  it  was 
new;  nothing  had  been  worked  out.  The  War  Depart- 
ment authorized  no  stoppages;  company  commanders 
were  responsible  for  their  own  collections,  and  the  sub- 
17 


ject  of  these  collections  caused  a  good  deal  of  anxiety. 
There  was  a  general  consensus  of  opinion :  to  the  guard 
house  and  the  black  list  with  any  man  who  failed  to 
pay.  Pay  day  came  and  went.  There  were  many  fail- 
ures to  pay,  likewise  many  in  the  guard  house.  One 
captain  had  three  men  who  failed  to  pay.  He  called 
them  into  the  orderly  room  one  at  a  time.  Each  man 
put  up  a  sorowful  story  about  having  spent  all  his 
money  before  he  reached  the  canteen.  To  each  one,  the 
captain  made  the  same  reply:  "I  do  not  like  to  have 
men  of  my  company  in  the  guard  house;  it  hurts  the 
man,  and  it  hurts  the  company."  Then  he  took  from 
his  own  pocket  the  money  needed  to  pay  each  man's 
canteen  bill,  and  sent  him  down  to  pay  it.  But  it  did 
not  stop  there.  The  captain  then  sought  the  canteen 
ojfficer,  and  learned  that  the  men  had  paid  up.  He 
asked  the  canteen  officer  to  write  him  a  letter  to  that 
effect,  and  the  letter  also  said  that  his  was  the  only 
company  at  the  post  which  owed  nothing.  This  letter 
was  posted  on  the  company  bulletin  board.  It  made  a 
hit.  The  men  of  the  company  thereafter  would  not 
stand  for  any  man  injuring  the  good  name  of  the 
company  by  non-payment  of  canteen  bills.  That  com- 
pany enjoyed  a  fine  reputation  while  other  company 
commanders  swore  and  reviled  and  put  men  in  the 
guard  house. 

HOMESICKNESS 

Many  of  the  young  soldiers  who  are  now  serving  at 

our  various  cantonments,  as  well  as  those  already  "over 

there"  have  left  their  homes   for  the  first  time.     It  is 

not  unlikely  that  many  of  them  will  suffer  from  home- 

18 


sickness,  perhaps  in  an  acute  form.  To  the  young 
soldier  hornesickness  is  a  great  trial,  and  it  will  take 
time  and  grit  for  him  to  overcome  it. 

The  judicious  officer,  alive  to  the  interest  of  his  men, 
can  do  much  to  help  overcome  the  ill  effects  of  this 
most  trying  time.  Just  a  few  words — and  no  more — 
to  tell  the  young  soldier  that  a  time  comes  in  the  life  of 
every  man  when  he  must  leave  his  former  home,  that 
the  strong  man  grits  his  teeth  and  overcomes  his  lone- 
some, distressed  feeling,  and  that  only  the  weakling 
gives  way  and  plays  the  baby  act. 

At  the  same  time  give  the  homesick  soldier  plenty  to 
do.  Homesickness  feeds  on  idleness.  It  is  most  likely 
to  disappear  when  the  soldier  is  given  such  a  quantity 
and  variety  of  work  as  to  keep  both  body  and  mind 
fully  occupied. 

WRITING  HOME  TO  HIS  RELATIVES 

Many  a  young  soldier  after  he  has  been  away  from 
home  for  a  time  acquires  new  interests,  and  forgets  to 
write  home,  frequently  to  the  distress  of  his  parents. 
It  is  not  infrequently  the  case  that  the  company  com- 
mander receives  anxious  letters  of  inquiry  from  the 
parents  or  other  relatives  of  some  of  his  men.  Gome 
officers  regard  such  small  matters  as  a  petty  detail  not 
of  sufficient  interest  to  require  their  attention,  but  it  is 
in  these  small  matters  that  the  officer  has  opportunity  to 
show  his  really  helpful  spirit  towards  his  men. 

One  way  to  manage  this  matter  is  to  wait  until  the 
company  is  assembled  and  then  announce  without  men- 
tioning any  names  that  a  letter  of  inquiry  has  been 
19 


received  from  the  parents  of  one  man  in  the  company; 
that  every  young  man  ought  to  feel  interest  enough  in 
his  parents  to  write  to  them  from  time  to  time,  and 
that  any  man  who  fails  to  take  that  small  trouble 
should  be  ashamed  of  his  neglect.  When  the  right 
sort  of  officer  makes  an  announcement  of  this  kind  to 
his  men  the  neglect  will  soon  disappear. 

PROPER  DISTRIBUTION  OF  DUTIES 

Before  our  entry  into  the  present  war  promotion  in 
our  army  was  relatively  slow.  A  second  lieutenant  was 
assigned  to  a  company,  and  he  had  the  benefit  of  learn- 
ing by  observation  and  experience.  His  captain  was 
generally  an  officer  who  had  received  a  certain  amount 
of  seasoning.  The  green  subaltern  had  abundant  op- 
portunity to  become  acquainted  with  his  profession 
gradually. 

It  is  not  so  now.  The  stress  of  war  has  put  upon 
the  young  officer  tremendously  important  duties,  and  at 
the  same  time  his  opportunities  for  properly  fitting 
himself  for  the  performance  of  those  duties  have  been 
greatly  curtailed.  Nowadays  a  great  many  of  our 
captains,  and  even  field  officers,  are  without  the  experi- 
ence that  is  so  necessary  to  enable  them  properly  to 
control  the  men  under  their  charge.  In  many  organiza- 
tions the  captain  and  the  lieutenant  must  learn  their 
duties  simultaneously — it  is  a  case  of  the  blind  leading 
the  blind.  All  the  more  necessary  is  it  then  that  some 
sort  of  system  be  pursued  and  that  system  the  right 
one. 

In  that  excellent .  manual,  the  Infantry  Drill  Regula- 
20 


tions,  it  is  laid  down  and  insisted  upon  over  and  often 
that  in  all  tactical  work  there  must  be  an  allotment  to 
each  subordinate  of  his  appropriate  duties  and  non- 
interference with  him  so  long  as  he  does  well.  It  is  a 
correct  principle  and  works  well.  It  is  the  means  we 
rely  upon  to  give  to  the  subordinate  the  opportunity 
for  developing  efficiency  and  confidence  in  himself. 
Without  this  system  we  could  never  train  the  subordi- 
nate officers  and  non-commissioned  officers  properly  to 
lead  their  commands.  This  same  system  which  the  drill 
regulations  prescribe  for  tactical  exercises  should  be 
insisted  upon  at  all  times — on  the  march,  in  camp,  at 
meals  and  in  barracks  or  in  billet.  There  is  no  other 
principle  more  important  for  the  young  officer  to  get 
clearly  fixed  in  his  mind,  for  in  many  organizations  this 
principle  is  neglected  entirely.  In  many  companies  the 
captain  and  the  first  sergeant  are  the  whole  show. 
There  is  no  intermediary,  and  nobody  else  attempts  to 
exercise  any  authority.  In  such  organizations  the  lieu- 
tenant assists  the  captain  only  when  at  drill  or  military 
exercise.  Subordinate  non-commissioned  officers  refer 
every  question  to  the  first  sergeant. 

The  corporal  is  frequently  never  called  upon  to  exer- 
cise any  authority  except  on  guard  or  in  charge  of 
fatigue  parties.  At  drill  he  gives  the  commands,  ''Squad, 
halt"  or  "follow  me;"  when  the  recall  sounds  his  au- 
thority ends,  his  duty  is  done.  No  one  but  the  captain 
and  the  first  sergeant  is  getting  any  training  in  the 
handling  of  men  because  no  one  else  has  the  oppor- 
tunity. 

When  the  time  comes  for  a  lieutenant  or  a  subordi- 
21 


nate  non-commissioned  officer  to  step  into  a  more  im- 
portant place  requiring  the  control  of  m-en,  he  is  green 
as  grass  because  he  has  had  no  actual  experience.  A 
man  may  stand  on  the  bank  and  watch  others  swim 
week  after  week;  but,  if  he  wants  to  learn-  how  to  swim, 
he  must  himself  go  into  the  water.  The  captain  who 
does  not  give  his  lieutenant  and  his  subordinate  non- 
commissioned officers  anything  to  do  except  at  drill 
and  military  exercise  is  not  training  his  company  as  the 
army  regulations  require,  neither  will  he  get  best  re- 
sults. 

I  quote  two  paragraphs  of  Army  Regulations  to  show 
their  general  tenor : 

Paragraph  287 :  A  thorough  police  of  bar- 
racks will  precede  the  Saturday  inspection.  The 
chiefs  of  squads  will  see  that  bunks  and 
bedding  are  overhauled,  floors,  tables,  and 
benches  scoured,  arms  and  accouterments 
cleaned,  and  all  leather  articles  polished. 

Paragraph  288:  Chiefs  of  squads  will  be  held 
responsible  for  the  cleanliness  of  their  men. 
They  will  see  that  those  who  are  to  go  on  duty 
put  their  arms,  accouterments  and  clothing  in 
the  best  order,  and  that  such  as  have  passes 
leave  the  post  in  proper  dress. 

There  are  few  organizations  where  these  paragraphs 
of  the  regulations  are  enforced.  When  a  captain  picks 
out  a  private  and  makes  him  corporal,  he  cannot  tell  in 
advance  what  sort  of  non-commissioned  officer  he  is 
going  to  make. 

22 


Neither  can  he  tell  much  about  the  corporal  if  he 
hears  him  say  only,  "Squad,  halt,"  or  "Follow  me."  I 
have  many  a  time  heard  a  captain  say  that  he  was  sur- 
prised and  disappointed  in  the  poor  showing  made  by 
some  sergeant  who  had  just  been  promoted  from  cor- 
poral. The  time  to  try  out  the  corporal  is  when  he  is 
a  corporal.  Give  him  the  seven  men  of  his  squad;  tell 
him  they  are  his  to  look  after,  to  instruct,  and  to  man- 
age. Tell  him  he  is  to  look  after  the  condition  of  their 
bunks,  their  equipment,  their  cleanliness  and  their  be- 
havior. Put  the  corporal  on  his  mettle.  When  his 
squad  is  unusually  good  at  inspection,  it  will  do  no 
harm  to  say,  "Corporal,  your  squad  was  in  good  shape 
today."  All  of  us  like  an  encouraging  word  now  and 
then.  When  the  corporal's  squad  is  not  in  good  shape, 
tell  him  so,  and  tell  him  what  was  wrong.  In  other 
words,  give  the  corporal  a  real  job.  If  any  man  of  his 
squad  has  muddy  shoes  at  the  foot  of  his  bunk,  or 
hair  that  needs  trimming,  or  grease  spots  on  his  coat, 
speak  to  the  corporal  about  it.  The  commissioned  offi- 
cer ought  never  to  do  the  corporal's  work;  it  is  suffi- 
cient if  the  officer  sees  that  the  corporal  does  his  work 
and  does  it  well.  It  is  only  by  holding  the  corporal 
strictly  to  his  job  that  he  will  get  the  idea  that  it  is 
really  and  truly  incumbent  upon  him  to  look  after  his 
squad  in  the  way  that  the  regulations  require. 

The  squad  system  is  the  very  soul  of  company  train- 
ing; it  gives  to  the  company  commander  opportunity 
to  size  up  his  subordinates,  to  relieve  any  who  are  hope- 
less, and  develops  confidence  and  efficiency  in  those 
who  need  just  this  kind  of  work. 
23 


In  proper  sequence,  each  line  sergeant  should  have 
under  him  the  squads  assigned  to  his  charge.  In  the 
supervision  of  these  squads,  he  should  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, deal  with  the  corporal.  The  captain  should  deal 
with  both.  In  short,  every  non-commissioned  officer 
should  have  a  job.  When  anything  goes  wrong,  every 
man  whose  business  it  was  to  supervise  that  particular 
work  should  be  held  up,  and  responsibility  for  the  fail- 
ure established. 

It  takes  a  tactful  captain  to  get  the  proper  work  out 
of  his  lieutenants.  Many  are  assigned  no  work  at  all 
except  at  drill  or  at  tactical  instruction.  There  can  be 
but  one  officer  in  command  of  a  company,  but  that  is 
no  excuse  for  letting  the  lieutenants  remain  ignorant 
and  go  to  rust  for  lack  of  opportunity  to  learn  their 
profession.  The  best  training  for  inexperienced  lieu- 
tenants will  be  given  by  assigning  to  each  in  turn  cer- 
tain duties  as  the  captain's  representative  in  the 
management  of  the  company  mess,  the  daily  inspection 
of  barracks,  kitchen,  mess  hall,  etc.,  office  work,  pre- 
paration of  rolls,  returns,  routine  papers,  etc.  One 
excellent  form  of  training  for  a  lieutenant  is  to  place 
him  in  charge  of  gymnastics,  athletic  events,  and  com- 
pany amusements. 

Following  out  the  scheme  above  outlined  and  required 
by  the  regulations,  every  officer  and  every  non-com- 
missioned officer  will  have  something  to  do.  The  cap- 
tain will  have  supervision  and  control  but  will  exercise 
it  in  such  a  way  that  all  of  his  subordinates  are  receiv- 
ing training  of  the  right  kind — a  training  that  will 
enable  the  machine  to  continue  to  run  smoothly  even 
24 


though   the   captain   and   the   first   sergeant   should   be 
simultaneously  called  away. 

CRITICISM 

Undoubtedly  one  of  the  greatest  handicaps  upon  effi- 
ciency in  our  army  is  the  tendency  upon  the  part  of 
some  of  our  officers  to  overmuch  criticism. 

Every  American  citizen  feels  at  liberty  to  express 
his  views  on  any  subject  that  comes  up.  Freedom  of 
speech  is  a  national  right,  and  the  American  officer 
feels  that  he  has  all  the  prerogatives  of  any  other 
citizen.  Not  always  does  criticism,  even  when  well 
meant,  work  to  the  good  of  the  military  service. 

For  instance,  let  us  suppose  that  an  order  involving 
a  new  policy  is  issued  from  the  War  Department.  What 
happens?  Do  we  as  a  body  get  behind  the  order,  and 
use  our  utmost  endeavor  to  carry  out  the  spirit  of  the 
order?  Or  do  we — a  great  many  of  us  at  any  rate — 
immediately  begin  to  tear  the  order  to  pieces,  and 
sharpen  our  wits  by  showing  how  some  other  plan 
suggested  by  ourselves  would  have  been  better?  The 
young  officer  cannot  be  too  careful  of  his  course  in  this 
respect.  No  officer  ought  to  expect  soldiers  under  his 
command  to  carry  out  loyally  his  orders  if  the  officer 
himself  does  not  set  the  example.  The  disastrous 
habit  of  "knocking"  all  orders  and  all  authority  is  one 
of  the  most  harmful  influences  in  our  whole  service. 

Not  only  that,  but  we  sometimes  find  this  criticism 
takes  place  in  the  presence  and  in  the  hearing  of  en- 
listed men;  nothing  could  be  worse.  It  is  an  old  saying 
that  is  is  a  soldier's  privilege  to  growl.  If  this  is  so, 
25 


our    service    would    be    often    more    benefited    by    the 
breach  than  by  the  observance  of  this  privilege. 

Our  officers'  mess  should  be  a  place  entirely  free 
from  the  criticism  of  official  orders,  and  a  place  notable 
for  its  loyalty  towards  official  authority.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  sometimes  the  case  that  our  messes  and  our 
clubs  are  only  convenient  spots  where  the  critics  may 
foregather. 

The  great  Admiral  Jervis  once  said:  "I  dread  not 
the  seamen;  it  is  the  indiscreet,  licentious  conversation 
of  the  officers,  and  their  presumptuous  discussions  of 
the  orders  they  receive  that  produces  all  our  ills."  Let 
all  officers  who  presume  to  criticise  their  seniors  re- 
member this — that  they  thereby  set  the  example  for 
criticism  of  themselves  by  all  who  are  junior  to  them. 

DRUNKENNESS 

One  of  the  most  difficult  things  that  the  young  officer 
will  have  to  contend  with  in  the  management  of  his 
men  is  to  prevent  on  the  part  of  some  of  them 
overindulgence  in  intoxicating  liquor.  This  is  a 
hard  problem  for  even  the  best  and  most  experienced 
company  commanders. 

Some  officers — many  officers,  in  fact — never  think  of 
taking  any  preventive  measures.  The  soldier  who  gets 
drunk  is  placed  in  confinement;  when  he  has  sobered 
up  he  is  tried  by  court-martial,  a  portion  of  his  pay  is 
taken  away,  perhaps  additional  confinement  is  awarded 
— and  that  ends  it  for  the  time  being.  Another  pay 
day  the  same  thing  happens,  and  pretty  soon  the  man 
is  a  confirmed  drunkard.  The  officer  who  draws  high 
26 


pay  to  control  his  men  never  thinks  to  raise  his  hand 
or  to  lift  his  voice  in  the  effort  to  prevent  the  soldier 
from  getting  drunk — his  only  action  is  to  punish  the 
man  after  the  offense.  Any  officer  who  is  satisfied  to 
allow  his  men  to  drink  to  excess,  and  makes  no  at- 
tempt to  prevent  it,  is  not  doing  his  full  duty. 

I  know  full  well  that  there  are  some  men — a  few 
men — in  almost  every  company  who  are  incorrigible, 
and  who  can  be  managed  only  by  the  strong  arm  of 
the  law.  Nevertheless,  most  of  our  soldiers  join  their 
companies  as  young  recruits.  They  are  not  confirmed 
drunkards  when  they  join,  and  with  proper  manage- 
ment they  can  be  kept  decent  and  sober.  The  most 
demoralizing  influence  upon  them  is  their  contact  with 
the  "hard  nuts"  of  the  company.  The  country  boy 
who  is  not  accustomed  to  drink  requires  a  good  deal 
of  backbone  to  withstand  the  guying  of  older  com- 
panions who  make  sport  of  him  and  his  lack  of  worldly 
experience.  Many  a  young  recruit  is  driven  to  his  first 
offense  through  the  taunts  of  older  men. 

It  requires  a  lot  of  moral  courage  on  the  part  of  the 
inexperienced  lad  to  stand  up  against  the  boastings  and 
the  enticements  of  those  whom  they  regard  as  veterans. 
The  time  to  save  the  young  soldier  is  in  the  beginning. 
A  little  care  on  his  captain's  part  will  do  much  to  keep 
the  young  soldier  straight.  If  his  foot  slips  and  he 
gets  drunk  for  the  first  time,  don't  keep  him  in  the 
guard  house  forever,  thereby  crushing  his  self-respect. 
Try  an  appeal  to  his  pride. 

In  my  own  experience  as  a  company  commander,  I 
never  found  any  other  method  as  useful  to  me  when  a 
27 


soldier  had  sobered  up  as  to  bring  him  alone  into  the 
orderly  room,  look  him  squarely  in  the  eyes,  and  say, 
"Jones,  don't  you  feel  ashamed  of  yourself?  Your 
conduct  is  hurting  yourself  and  your  company,  too." 
The  man  in  uniform  is  just  as  much  subject  to  re- 
morse as  the  man  in  civilian  clothing.  It  was  a  very 
exceptional  soldier  who  would  not  say:  "Yes,  Captain, 
I  do  feel  ashamed,  and  I  am  going  to  keep  sober  next 
pay  day."  Then  was  the  time  to  say:  "All  right,  Jones, 
I  am  going  to  watch  you  next  pay  day,  and  see  if  you 
are  man  enough  to  keep  sober."  And  in  Heaven's 
name,  if  Jones  does  come  through  successfully,  don't 
fail  to  find  opportunity  to  let  him  know  that  his  vic- 
tory has  been  observed. 

It  is  not  a  bad  plan  to  do  this  at  inspection  in  ranks — 
the  men  standing  adjacent  will  hear  the  captain's 
recognition  of  Jones'  improvement  and  they  may  be 
depended  upon  to  tax  him  thoroughly  should  he  fall 
again.  A  little  touch  of  the  human  element  now  and 
then,  a  word  of  encouragement  from  the  captain  at  the 
right  time,  will  help  many  a  young  soldier  to  find  him- 
self, and  bring  him  to  feel  something  of  that  personal 
pride  in  himself  and  his  record  which  is  the  very 
foundation  of  every  good  soldier. 

The  captain  who  is  determined  to  do  his  full  duty  by 
his  men  has  still  another  means  at  his  disposal,  and  a 
very  effective  one  if  he  properly  uses  it.  The  young 
soldier  belongs  to  a  permanent  squad  of  which  a  cor- 
poral is  squad  leader.  The  corporal  has  but  seven  men 
to  look  after,  and  he  should  be  made  to  understand  at 
the  beginning  that  it  is  a  part  of  his  duty  to  look  after 
28 


the  behavior  of  his  men.  The  squad  belongs  to  a 
larger  section  of  the  company  under  supervision  of  a 
sergeant.  Give  the  sergeant  to  understand  that  he  is 
to  see  that  the  corporals  under  his  supervision  do  their 
full  duty.  In  this  way  the  recruit  is  being  looked  after, 
and  both  the  corporal  and  the  sergeant  are  getting  use- 
ful training,  and  an  idea  of  the  responsibility  that  has 
been  placed  upon  them. 

If  anything  goes  wrong  with  a  soldier  do  not  fail  to 
bring  both  the  sergeant  and  the  corporal  into  the  case, 
so  that  they  may  thoroughly  appreciate  and  realize  their 
own  duties.  In  many  companies  the  men  are  permitted 
to  get  drunk  and  to  receive  punishment  therefor,  while 
the  sergeants  and  corporals  pursue  the  even  tenor  of 
their  way  with  never  a  word  said  to  them. 

PERSONAL  ACQUAINTANCE  WITH  HIS 
MEN 

The  officer  who  is  on  duty  with  a  company  ought  to 
be  able  to  call  by  name  every  man  of  his  organization. 
I  have  sometimes  seen  captains  who  had  been  in  com- 
mand of  the  same  company  for  many  months,  yet  could 
not  personally  identify  half  of  his  men.  Nothing  gives 
to  the  soldier  a  more  belittling  idea  of  his  importance 
than  to  find  that  his  own  captain  does  not  know  him  by 
name. 

Some  officers  may  regard  this  as  a  trivial  matter,  but 
it  is  one  that  the  young  officer  who  wants  to  succeed 
cannot  afford  to  neglect.  If  the  officer  does  not  exert 
himself  sufficiently  to  know  by  name  his  own  men  he 
need  not  be  surprised  if  the  interest  of  the  men  in 
29 


their  company  is  only  perfunctory.  Men  will  not  do 
their  best  work  for  an  officer  who  shows  so  little  in- 
terest in  them. 

THE  COMPANY  MESS 

One  of  the  most  important  duties  that  falls  to  the 
lot  of  the  line  officer  is  supervision  of  the  company 
mess.  It  is  surprising  how  much  the  interest  of  young 
soldiers  centers  around  the  company  kitchen. 

The  successful  line  officer  must  take  an  interest  in 
that  which  is  of  such  vital  importance  to  his  men. 
There  should  be  close  inspection  of  the  kitchen,  the 
cooking  utensils,  the  refrigerator,  the  dishes  and  all 
other  mess  paraphernalia.  Scrupulous  cleanliness  must 
be  insisted  upon.  The  officer  should  frequently  sample 
the  food  and  the  coffee,  and  he  should  take  an  active 
part  in  planning  the  daily  menus  so  as  to  afford  pleas- 
ing variety.  The  interest  of  the  officer  must  be  real, 
not  feigned.  Soldiers  are  not  at  all  slow  in  detecting 
the  officer  whose  interest  is  only  a  thin  veneer. 

PUNISHMENTS 

Scarcely  any  feature  of  military  administration  is  more 
perplexing  to  the  inexperienced  officer  than  that  of 
punishments.  Under  our  army  regulations  and  under 
the  Articles  of  War,  much  authority  is  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  commissioned  officer.  Necessarily  this 
must  be  the  case.  Discipline  cannot  be  maintained  un- 
less the  officer  has  authority  adequate  for  that  purpose. 

The  object  of  punishment  is  to  maintain  discipline 
and  its  use  should  be  limited  to  the  minimum  consist- 
30 


ent  with  the  object  in  view.  The  second  paragraph  of 
our  army  regulations  reads  as  follows : 

"Military  authority  will  be  exercised  with  firmness, 
kindness  and  justice.  Punishments  must  conform  to 
the  law  and  follow  offenses  as  promptly  as  circum- 
stances permit." 

No  better  guide  can  be  given  to  the  young  officer  than 
that  quoted  above,  but  he  needs  something  a  little  more 
in  detail  until  experience  has  shown  him  the  way.  To 
secure  best  results  the  essential  elements  of  punish- 
ment are  justice  and  promptness.  The  officer  ought 
always  to  investigate  thoroughly  before  he  administers 
punishment.  It  is  better  that  an  offense  should  go  un- 
punished than  to  make  a  mistake  and  punish  an  inno- 
cent man. 

In  our  service  the  amount  and  the  kinds  of  punish- 
ment vary  widely — the  personal  equation  of  the  officer 
who  has  the  matter  in  hand  cuts  a  large  figure.  One 
officer  will  punish  quite  severely  what  another  over- 
looks entirely.  Some  officers  have  a  cast  iron  rule — 
"Let  no  guilty  man  escape" — therefore,  they  prefer 
charges  for  every  dereliction  for  trial  by  court-martial. 

Looking  back  over  my  four  years  at  West  Point  the 
only  advice  on  this  subject  that  I  can  recall  came  from 
an  instructor  in  law,  who  advised  his  section  to  be 
careful  as  young  officers  to  prefer  charges  for  every 
dereliction  so  that  they  might  establish  for  themselves 
the  reputation  of  being  absolutely  impartial.  In  this 
way  the  men  would  know  what  to  expect,  and  would 
have  no  grievance.  Even  now  we  have  officers  who 
know  no  other  method.  The  green  recruit  and  the  "old 
31 


soak"  are  all  in  the  same  boat;  to  them  all  soldiers 
are  as  alike  as  pawns  on  a  chess-board.  To  such  officers 
any  attempt  to  consider  the  human,  the  personal  ele- 
ment in  the  soldier  is  childish;  any  attempt  to  control 
by  other  means  than  that  of  fear  is  pooh-poohed  as 
balderdash  or  "weak  attempt  at  moral  suasion." 

To  be  sure  there  is  to  be  found,  now  and  then,  a 
soldier  to  whom  all  appeals  are  useless.  To  such  a  man 
the  methods  of  force  are  obligatory,  and  should  be 
applied  freely  and  unhesitatingly.  But,  if  he  is  given 
opportunity,  the  average  soldier  will  respond  surpris- 
ingly well  to  appeals  to  his  pride. 

Under  our  present  regulations  there  is  much  power 
in  the  hands  of  the  company  commander.  Company 
punishment  and  the  withholding  of  privileges  are  suffi- 
cent  in  the  hands  of  a  capable  officer  to  control  all 
except  the  really  hard  cases.  It  ought  to  be  the  effort 
of  every  line  officer  to  use  company  punishment  when- 
ever it  is  possible  to  secure  the  desired  results  in  that 
way.  Of  course,  the  soldier  must  be  informed  of  his 
right  to  demand  trial  by  court-martial  if  he  prefers. 

In  the  first  place  the  captain  knows  his  men  better 
than  any  summary  court  officer  can  possibly  know 
them.  In  addition  it  is  of  great  advantage  to  a  captain 
to  manage  his  own  men.  Whenever  the  captain  has  to 
call  for  outside  assistance  through  the  medium  of 
court-martials  he  loses  an  asset  of  great  value.  A  com- 
pany likes  to  feel  that  its  captain  is  a  strong  man — 
strong  enough  to  manage  his  men  without  having  to 
call  for  outside  help.  Moreover,  when  the  captain 
awards  punishment  in  the  shape  of  kitchen  police  or 
32 


extra  fatigue,  it  is  usually  served  around  the  company 
barracks  where  the  men  of  the  company  have  a  chance 
to  see  what  is  happening.  They  usually  taunt  their 
luckless  companion,  and  at  the  same  time  make  up 
their  minds  not  to  be  caught  in  the  same  predicament. 
At  the  same  time  the  company  is  the  direct  beneficiary, 
for  the  punishment  usually  takes  the  form  of  company 
chores  such  as  cleaning  windows,  scrubbing  floors,  peel- 
ing potatoes,  etc. 

When  I  was  a  captain  I  had  a  German  cook  who 
was  a  great  disciplinarian — any  soldier  who  had  once 
served  under  him  a  tour  of  kitchen  police  by  way  of 
punishment  never  intentionally  got  himself  in  the  way 
of  serving  additional  tours. 

The  foregoing  remarks  are  intended  to  cover  only 
those  cases  of  neglect  and  of  minor  infractions  which 
may  properly  be  punished  in  the  manner  indicated.  Seri- 
ous offenses  such  as  disrespect,  insubordination,  wilful 
defiance  of  authority,  etc.,  require  prompt  and  ade- 
quate punishment.  Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  attempt- 
ing any  halfway  measures  with  an  insubordinate  or 
mutinous  soldier.  On  the  contrary  discipline  is  much 
more  likely  to  be  restored  by  strenuous  measures  than 
by  halting,  flimsy  ones.  The  wilful,  defiant  soldier 
should  receive  prompt  and  adequate  punishment  not 
only  by  way  of  correcting  him,  but  also  for  the  sake 
of  its  influence  on  others. 

A  word  must  be  said  also  as  to  the  manner  of  the 

officer  while  awarding  punishment.     The  officer  should 

be  calm  and  dignified.    The  excited  officer,  talking  in  a 

loud  tone,   and   rasping  the   soldier  whose  case  he   is 

33 


adjudging  accomplishes  little  that  is  of  use.  He  arouses 
in  the  soldier  a  feeling  of  resentment  that  is  far  from 
helpful  in  establishing  discipline.  The  best  and  most 
efficient  disciplinarians  I  have  known  in  the  army  were 
men  of  soft  manner  and  even  temper.  It  was  said  of 
the  late  Major  General  Thomas  H.  Ruger,  who  was 
notably  successful  as  a  disciplinarian,  that  in  the  twenty 
years  he  was  a  colonel  of  an  infantry  regiment  he  had 
lost  his  temper  but  on  one  occasion.  Let  the  young 
officer  thoroughly  understand  that  military  efficiency 
does  not  consist  in  a  loud  manner  and  a  strident  voice. 

ORDERS 

Any  orders  given,  whether  written  or  verbal,  should 
be  as  short  and  simple  as  clearness  will  permit.  The 
greatest  order  ever  given  consisted  of  four  short  words. 
God  said:  "Let  there  be  light."  Take  that  as  a  model 
and  you  can  not  go  wrong. 

CHEERFULNESS 
Hardly  anything  is  more  useful  to  a  young  officer 
than  cheerfulness.  A  grouch  casts  a  gloom  over  every- 
body. The  cheerful  man  is  an  asset  of  great  value.  I 
once  had  in  my  company  a  short,  sawed-off  Irishman 
whom  the  men  called  "Shorty."  Sometimes  around  pay 
day  he  was  a  little  hard  to  manage,  but  he  was  a 
valuable  man  in  the  company  because  his  unfailing  wit 
and  cheerfulness  were  contagious,  and  served  to  keep 
the  men  in  good  humor.  One  hot  day,  after  a  loni? 
march  in  the  Philippines  we  had  gotten  lost,  and  were 
following  an  unknown  trail  up  hill  and  down  dale. 
34 


Finally,  1  brougltt  the  company  to  a  halt  and  sent 
"Shorty's"  squad  to  the  top  of  a  hill  to  reconnoitre. 
When  he  had  reached  the  summit  one  of  the  men  called 
to  him,  "I  say.  Shorty,  is  this  the  last  hill?"  To  which 
he  immediately  shouted  back,  "Yes,  this  is  the  last  hill, 
the  next  one  is  a  mountain."  His  apt  reply  put  the 
men  in  good  humor  and  made  them  forget  their 
fatigue. 

Nothing  is  better  around  the  barracks  than  a  few 
who  can  sing,  or  a  man  who  can  play  the  guitar  or 
banjo.  Whatever  gives  a  cheerful  tone  to  the  bar- 
racks, or  the  camp,  is  surely  worth  cultivating.  The 
efficient  organization  is  generally  the  cheerful,  happy 
one — it  is  never  the  sullen,  grouchy  one. 

LOYALTY 

Among  the  qualities  which  are  essential  in  the  make- 
up of  the  really  valuable  officer,  there  is  scarcely  any 
one  of  them  that  ranks  in  importance  with  loyalty — ^by 
which  one  means  a  true,  willing,  and  unfailing  devotion 
to  a  cause. 

In  his  individual  relations  to  his  superiors,  we  under- 
stand loyalty  on  the  part  of  a  subordinate  to  mean  a 
true  and  voluntary  compliance  with  the  will  and  plans 
of  the  superior.  Every  man  has  a  desire  to  have  things 
his  own  way — that  is  only  natural,  and  no  man  can  be 
blamed  for  it.  The  milk  and  water  man — the  man  who 
has  no  ideas  of  his  own— who  is  willing  to  sneeze  every 
time  his  superior  takes  snuff,  never  amounts  to  very 
much,  anyway.  But  there  is  a  proper  time,  and  a 
proper  way  to  express  our  ideas.     Once  a  decision  has 

:5 


been  reached  by  a  superior — once  your  duty  has  been 
laid  down — it  is  time  to  give  up  your  own  ideas,  and 
attempt  with  whole  might  to  carry  out  the  plan  which 
it  is  your  duty  to  follow. 

On  the  efficiency  report  which  commanding  officers 
are  required  in  time  of  peace  to  fill  out  in  the  case  of 
subordinate  officers,  there  is  this  question: 

"Proper    authority    having    decided    on    the 
methods  and  procedure  to  accomplish  a  certain 
desirable  end,  state  whether  he  impresses  you 
as  being  an  officer  who  will  co-operate  ener- 
getically and  loyally  in  accomplishing  this  end 
regardless  of  his  personal  views  in  the  matter." 
Consider  for  a  moment  that  you  are  a  commanding 
officer,  and  that  you  are  filling  out  your  own  efficiency 
report,  what  answer  do  you  give  to  that  question?     If 
that  answer  were  truthfully  given  in  the  case  of  all 
officers,   it  is   surprising  how   few   could  lay  claim  to 
real   loyalty.     Let   us   note,    further,   that  true   loyalty 
does  not  mean  blind,  passive  obedience  to  the  letter  of 
the  law.    It  means  a  true  effort  to  carry  out  the  intent. 
As  an  instance  in  point  the  following  quotation  from 
Commander   Schofield   of   the  United   States    Navy   is 
cited : 

"In  an  army  maneuver  a  captain  was  in- 
structed to  take  his  company  to  a  certain  place 
and  remain  there.  He  obeyed.  Later  a  general 
officer  passing  that  way  inquired  of  the  cap- 
tain what  he  was  doing  there,  and  was  in- 
formed by  the  captain  of  his  orders  "to  re- 
36 


main."     It  was  not  conceivable  to  that  general 
officer  that  the  captain  had  no  further  instruc- 
tions, but  such  was  the  case.     Was  that  cap- 
tain loyal?    Not  unless  he  had  exhausted  every 
means   to   determine  his  true  relations   to  the 
affairs  in  hand.    Loyalty  is  not  characterized  by 
blind  and  servile  obedience,  but  by  intelligent, 
active  and  zealous  obedience." 
The   truly    loyal    officer    will    never    be    satisfied    to 
shield  himself  by  claiming  ignorance  of  his  orders  if  it 
be    possible    to    obtain    information.     Loyalty   to    duty 
requires   the   suppression   of   his   own   interests   to   aid 
the  general  plan.     I  quote  from  Commander  Schofield 
the  following  excellent  illustration  of  this  idea : 

**0n  one  occasion  it  had  been  decided  to  hold  a 
night  maneuver  in  which  numerous  vessels  were  to 
take  part.  The  maneuver  involved  search  by  night 
for  the  enemies'  ships,  and  an  attempt  at  attacking 
them  if  found.  The  problem  was  so  designed  that 
every  ship  would  get  valuable  training  in  night  work. 
The  hour  for  opening  the  problem  was  set;  at  that 
hour  each  ship  was  to  be  in  an  assigned  area.  By  a 
prearranged  signal,  the  maneuver  was  to  begin  on  the 
presumption  that  each  ship  was  in  its  assigned  area. 
One  of  the  scouts,  desiring  special  distinction  for  effi- 
ciency, passed  outside  its  area,  promptly  found  the 
enemy  and,  on  the  opening  of  the  maneuver,  began 
reporting  the  enemy's  movements.  The  value  of  the 
maneuver  was  ruined  because  that  scout  was  not  loyal 
to  the  plan.  The  desire  for  personal  distinction  in  the 
maneuver  out-weighed  the  demands  of  complete  loyalty 


to  the  maneuver,  and  resulted  in  the  wasted  efforts  of 
many  ships.  Loyalty  means  the  continued  conscious- 
ness of  membership,  of  partnership,  in  the  whole.  It 
means  that  the  desire  for  the  good  of  the  whole  shall 
predominate." 

If  we  carefully  examine  ourselves,  we  shall  find  too 
often  a  tendency  to  examine  the  orders  of  our  su- 
periors. If  they  agree  with  our  own  ideas  we  are  in- 
tensely loyal.  If  they  do  not,  we  take  them  with  bad 
grace.  In  other  words,  it  is  too  often  the  case  that 
our  loyalty  rings  true  only  when  the  plan  we  are  re- 
quired to  follow  agrees  with  our  own  ideas.  It  is  a 
very  poor  and  unreliable  subordinate  who  can  be  de- 
pended upon  to  carry  out  energetically  only  those  plans 
which  he  himself  approves. 

APPOINTMENT  AND  USE  OF  NON-COM- 
MISSIONED OFFICERS 

The  back-bone  of  every  organization  is  the  non-com- 
missioned officers  who  are  a  part  of  it.  Properly  se- 
lected, properly  trained  and  properly  used,  the  non- 
commissioned officers  are  the  mainstay  of  discipline  and 
of  efficiency.  In  nothing  is  a  young  officer  more  likely 
to  make  mistakes  than  in  the  selection  and  in  the 
training  of  the  corporals  and  the  sergeants  who  are 
under  his  control. 

These  non-commissioned  officers  live  in  the  barracks, 
sleep  in  the  barracks,  and  take  their  meals  in  the 
company  mess.  They  are  present  during  the  very  con- 
siderable time  when  there  is  no  officer  on  hand.  Upon 
them  falls  the  brunt  of  maintaining  company  discipline. 
38 


Hence,  the  great  importance  of  training  them  so  that 
they  may  be  properly  fitted  for  their  important  duties. 

As  a  rule,  the  most  soldierly,  best  disciplined,  and 
most  capable  private  of  the  company  is  made  corporal; 
but  no  officer  can  tell  how  well  the  new  made  corporal 
will  succeed  until  he  has  been  tested.  One  great  trouble 
is  that  the  training  of  the  corporals  is  frequently  not 
along  the  right  lines.  In  many  organizations  the  duty 
of  the  corporal  is  confined  largely  to  drill,  to  guard, 
and  fatigue  duty.  In  comparatively  few  organizations 
is  use  made  of  the  corporal  by  putting  upon  him  the 
supervision  of  his  squad  in  every  respect.  No  corporal 
will  be  trained  properly  unless  he  has  the  idea  that  the 
responsibility  for  his  squad  rests  primarily  upon  him- 
self. 

No  private  ought  to  be  made  a  corporal  under  the 
supposition  that  in  the  natural  order  of  events  when 
he  has  become  the  senior  corporal  he  will  be  promoted 
sergeant.  Such  a  scheme  is  to  take  from  the  corporal 
the  main  incentive  to  do  his  duty  thoroughly.  It  robs 
the  company  commander  of  the  great  value  of  competi- 
tion, and  competition  properly  used  is  one  of  the  very 
greatest  assets  in  successful  company  administration.  At 
the  time  of  his  promotion  the  corporal  should  be  thor- 
oughly instructed  in  the  duties  that  will  be  expected  of 
him.  At  the  same  time,  he  should  be  told  that  his  own 
future  will  depend  upon  the  way  that  he  performs  this 
duty.  He  should  be  told  that  if  he  cannot  manage  the 
seven  men  of  his  squad  successfully  he  will  be  relieved 
and  a  successor  appointed.  In  addition,  he  should  be 
told  that  if  he  manages  his  squad  better  than  any  other 
39 


corporal  in  the  company  he  will  be  the  first  to  be  pro- 
moted sergeant.  In  this  way  will  be  established  com- 
petition and  the  great  benefit  of  competition  will  be 
gained. 

At  one  time  during  my  service  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  I  was  called  upon  to  make  ten  corporals  from 
a  batch  of  recruits,  none  of  whom  had  been  in  the 
company  more  than  a  few  days.  I  picked  out  the  ten 
men  who  seemed  likely  to  be  of  value  as  non-com- 
missioned officers  and  brought  them  together  in  the 
orderly  room.  I  explained  to  them  that  each  of  them 
was  to  have  entire  charge  of  his  squad  including  their 
general  instruction,  the  care  of  their  equipment,  the 
supervision  of  the  barracks  occupied  by  his  squad,  and 
especially,  the  general  behavior  of  his  men.  They  were 
told  that  this  general  control  would  be  exercised  under 
my  supervision  and  under  that  of  the  lieutenants  and 
sergeants  of  the  company,  but  that  the  actual  work 
would  be  done  by  the  corporals  and  that  we  should  keep 
close  note  of  the  way  in  which  each  one  performed  this 
duty.  At  the  same  time  I  was  careful  to  explain  that 
it  was  necessary  to  give  them  relative  rank  at  that 
time  but  that  I  should  not  at  all  be  guided  by  that 
relative  rank  in  their  promotion.  I  explained  that  the 
best  corporal — the  one  who  ran  his  squad  in  all  re- 
spects most  successfully — would  be  the  first  one  to  be 
promoted  sergeant.  I  found  that  scheme  to  work  ad- 
mirably and  I  never  after  followed  any  other.  It  made 
the  corporals  take  an  interest  in  their  squads  which  I 
could  have  obtained  in  no  other  way. 

Not  long  ago  I  served  a  tour  of  more  than  four 
40 


years  in  the  Inspector  General's  Department.  During 
that  time  I  had  occasion  to  inspect  many  organizations 
of  the  service.  These  organizations  varied  greatly  in 
appearance  and  in  general  efficiency.  There  was  one 
respect,  however,  in  which  all  of  the  best  organizations 
agreed  thoroughly.  They  were  all  run  on  the  squad 
system,  and  that  system  was  made  the  keystone  of 
company  administration.  In  all  of  the  best  organiza- 
tions which  I  have  inspected,  responsibility  of  non- 
commissioned officers  was  developed  to  a  high  degree, 
and  in  a  great  many  of  them  there  was  established  a 
system  of  squad  competition. 

It  is  not  a  difficult  matter  for  a  tactful  captain  to 
establish  this  system  of  competition,  either  between 
squads  of  his  company  or  between  companies  of  the 
same  regiment-  I  have  seen  companies  under  a  tactful 
captain  work  voluntarily  and  enthusiastically  in  plant- 
ing vines  and  sodding  the  company  area,  laying  neat 
walks,  and  in  every  respect  improving  the  appearance 
of  the  company  for  the  main  reason  that  they  wanted  to 
be  regarded  as  having  the  most  attractive  company  bar- 
racks. So  far  as  competition  between  squads  of  the 
same  organization  is  concerned,  a  captain  can  readily 
establish  it  by  holding  his  corporals  responsible  for  the 
appearance  of  their  squads;  by  requiring  of  them  that 
prior  to  the  regular  Saturday  inspection  corporals  shall 
make  the  required  preliminary  inspection. 

A  remark  of  the  captain  at  his  own  inspection  to  a 

corporal  of  the  squad  that  he  had  found  the  squad  in 

unusually  good  shape  will  put  the  men  of  that  squad 

on   their   mettle;   will   make   every   man   in   the   squad 

41 


strive  to  be  worthy  of  that  captain's  commendation  on 
subsequent  occasions.  If  any  squad  has  fallen  below 
standard,  the  captain  has  only  to  call  the  corporal  into 
the  orderly  room  and  tell  him  simply  that  his  squad 
was  unsatisfactory.  If  the  corporal  is  worth  his  salt 
it  takes  but  one  admonition  of  the  captain  to  rouse  his 
ambition  and  make  him  determined  to  merit  no  more 
of  them. 

The  sergeants  in  their  turn  should  have  supervision 
over  the  squads  belonging  to  their  sections  and  in 
dealing  with  these  squads  should  be  required  as  far  as 
possible  to  exercise  JirS^'  control  through  the  corporal. 
Any  officer  who  has  to  deal  with  men  should  call  upon 
both  sergeants  and  corporals.  It  is  only  in  this  way 
that  the  best  use  of  non-commissioned  officers  can  be 
made  and  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  can  be  laid  the 
assured  foundation  for  true  company  efficiency. 

There  are  two  things  the  officer  must  look  to  care- 
fully: Never  fail  to  back  up  your  non-commissioned 
officers  when  they  are  in  performance  of  duty;  never 
correct  one  in  the  hearing  of  privates  if  it  is  possible  to 
postpone  the  correction  and  give  it  in  private.  These 
two  things  are  essential  and  should  receive  careful 
attention. 

TACT 

Of  all  the  valuable  qualities  which  an  officer  can 
have  few  of  them  are  superior  in  importance  to  tact. 
I  do  not  know  exactly  what  definition  the  dictionary 
gives  to  this  word,  but  in  a  military  sense  it  means  a 
knowledge  and  an  appreciation  of  when  and  how  to  do 
things. 

42 


The  prime  essential  of  tact  is  a  first-rate  knowledge 
of  human  nature.  The  tactful  man  knows  how  to  deal 
with  his  fellow-men.  In  our  service  today  there  is 
many  an  officer  of  experience  and  ability  whose  mili- 
tary usefulness  is  seriously  marred  because  of  his  lack 
of  tact.  It  is  the  oil  which  makes  the  machinery  of 
military  affairs  run  smoothly.  When  tact  is  lacking  the 
military  machine  soon  acquires  a  disagreeable  squeak. 
It  is  not  infrequently  the  case  that  success  which  at- 
tends an  effort  depends  upon  the  time,  the  place,  and 
the  attending  circumstances.  Just  a  little  knowledge 
of  when  and  how  to  do  things  sometimes  accomplishes 
the  desired  results  when  the  lack  of  such  knowledge 
would  result  in  inevitable  failure.  As  illustrative  of 
this,  in  his  admirable  article  on  Military  Character, 
Admiral  Sims  relates  an  instance  of  his  early  service 
which  is  both  interesting  and  instructive: 

"Shortly  after  I  reported  on  my  first  ship,  I  learned 
that  if  I  made  out  an  official  application  for  leave,  and 
the  captain  approved  it,  I  would  be  free  to  do  as  I 
pleased  until  my  leave  expired.  So,  having  prepared 
the  document  in  due  form,  I  requested  the  marine 
orderly  at  the  cabin  door  to  hand  it  to  the  captain. 
This  orderly  was  an  old  man  who  had  had  extensive 
experience  with  the  temperamental  idiosyncrasies  of 
commanding  officers.  He  glanced  at  the  paper  and  at 
once  handed  it  back  to  me  with  the  following  wise  ad- 
monition:  'If  you'd  be  a-takin'  of  my  advice,  now,  Mr. 
Sims,  you'd  hand  this  here  request  in  after  the  old 
man's  had  his  lunch:  he's  in  a  h — 1  of  a  humor  this 
mornin' !'     I    followed   this   advice  and   my   leave   was 


granted,  and  since  that  time  I  have  seldom  if  ever 
made  any  request  of  a  superior  officer  until  after  he  has 
had  his  lunch.  I  have  related  this  incident  to  you 
gentlemen  because  I  believe  that  a  systematic  avoid- 
ance of  contact  with  an  empty  stomach  will  be  found 
as  advantageous  in  civil  as  in  military  life." 

DUTY 

This  is  the  most  important  word  in  the  soldier's  vo- 
cabulary. It  is  a  word  which  determines  in  large,  part 
the  value  of  any  officer  to  the  military  service.  Great 
ability,  fine  common  sense,  excellent  intiative,  and  many 
other  important  military  qualities  will  be  lost  unless 
accompanied  by  an  adequate  sense  of  duty.  It  is  not 
my  intention  to  try  to  preach  a  sermon  on  this  subject. 

By  duty  we  mean  that  an  officer  constantly  exerts  his 
best  ability  towards  doing  what  he  ought  to  do.  The 
officer  who  neglects  to  put  forth  his  best  efforts  under 
all  conditions  thereby  falls  short  of  that  which  is  ex- 
pected of  him.  The  young  officer  can  readily  determine 
for  himself  his  own  personal  equation.  Better  than  any 
one  else  the  officer  knows  whether  he  constantly  uses  his 
best  efforts  and  whether  to  the  best  of  his  ability  he  is 
attempting  to  perform  that  which  he  ought  to  do. 

Duty  calls  for  self-sacrifice.  It  requires  that  an  of- 
ficer shall  neglect  his  own  comfort  and  his  ease  to  do 
that  which  his  own  judgment  and  his  own  conscience 
tell  him  he  ought  to  do.  The  conscience  of  the  young 
officer  will  be  his  best  guide  to  tell  him  whether  he  is 
following  his  duty  according  to  his  best  light.  His 
conscience  will  tell  him  whether,  when  he  is  on  guard 
44 


he  uses  his  best  endeavors  to  instruct  and  to  inspect 
his  sentinels  closely  and  thoroughly;  it  will  tell  him 
whether  at  the  end  of  a  hard  march  he  neglects  his  own 
weariness  to  look  after  the  comfort  of  the  men  who  are 
dependent  upon  him;  it  will  tell  him  whether  in  all  of 
the  matters  which  are  put  upon  him  he  is  giving  to  the 
service  the  best  that  is  in  him.  If  he  does  not  in  every 
respect  use  his  best  abilities,  if  he  is  not  persistent  in 
his  endeavors  to  do  what  he  ought  to  do,  then  he  has 
fallen  short  of  what  the  Government  has  a  right  to  ex- 
pect. Many  an  officer  in  our  service,  of  excellent  ability 
otherwise,  finds  himself  unrewarded  because  he  is 
lacking  in  the  talent  of  continuous  and  persistent  ef- 
fort. It  is  of  no  use  to  be  a  genius  unless  that  power 
is  used.  The  careful,  slow-plodding  officer,  who  can 
always  be  relied  upon  to  do  his  best,  is  of  far  more 
value  than  the  brilliant  but  erratic  officer  whose  ability 
is  not  always  dependable. 

DECISION  OF  CHARACTER 

Scarcely  anything  more  adverse  to  the  efficiency  of  an 
officer  can  be  said  than  to  say  that  he  lacks  decision  of 
character.  By  decision  of  character  we  mean  the  abil- 
ity to  arrive  at  a  conclusion  and  follow  that  conclusion 
to  its  legitimate  results.  The  uncertain  man  who  never 
knows  his  own  mind  and  who  is  always  conferring  and 
consulting  with  others  is  never  able  to  gain  the  confi- 
dence of  his  own  men.  Soldiers  in  a  company  are  not 
long  in  sizing  up  an  officer's  ability  in  this  respect. 

Few  young  officers  have  decision  of  character  in  a 
prominent  degree.  Lack  of  experience  makes  many  of 
45 


them  timid.  Decision  of  character  in  the  mihtary  man 
is  not  as  a  rule  a  thing  which  comes  to  an  officer  in  full 
blossom.  It  is,  however,  a  thing  which  can  be  readily 
developed.  Observation  and  experience  are  great  teach- 
ers in  this  respect  and  by  constant  effort  any  young 
officer  of  ability  will  soon  be  master  of  his  own  de- 
cision. I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  an  officer,  whatever 
his  ability,  should  neglect  the  opinions  and  suggestions 
of  others.  Nothing  is  more  disgusting  than  the  head- 
strong man  who  will  listen  to  the  opinion  of  nobody. 
What  I  mean  is  that  having  heard  the  opinions  and 
suggestions  of  others  the  decision  must  be  that  of  the 
officer  himself.  In  our  service  we  find  there  are  some- 
times officers  with  long  years  of  service  and  of  high 
rank  who  are  dominated  entirely  by  subordinates.  Such 
officers  are  never  able  to  announce  a  decision  until 
they  have  consulted  a  subbrdinate  and  the  decision 
when  it  is  announced  is  not  that  of  himself  but  of  his 
subordinate.  Hardly  anything  is  more  humiliating  to 
a  superior  than  to  know  that  his  subordinates  do  not 
regard  him  as  the  real  power  behind  the  throne,  but 
look  for  someone  of  his  staff.  The  young  officer  should 
try  to  train  himself  in  this  respect  and  come  early  to 
rely  upon  himself  and  be  master  of  his  own  mind.  Self- 
conceit  in  any  man  is  disgusting  but  self-confidence  is 
an  admirable  trait  when  kept  within  proper  bounds. 

INITIATIVE  AND  SELF-CONFIDENCE 
We  have  lots  of  officers  of  ability  and  of  good  inten- 
tion who  know  their  duty  and  do  what  is  told  them  in 
an  excellent  way;  but  the  trouble  with  such  officers  is 
that  they  lack  initiative.     They  never  do  anything  ex- 
46 


cept  what  they  are  told  to  do;  they  never  start  any- 
thing. 

No  officer  is  so  helpless  and  so  hopeless  and  so  use- 
less as  the  one  who  is  content  to  drag  along  pursuing 
the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  never  evincing  any  real  ac- 
tive interest  in  his  own  profession..  The  officer  whose 
only  interest  in  his  profession  is  to  draw  his  pay  and 
keep  out  of  trouble  is  not  a  military  asset  but  a  lia- 
bility. The  officer  in  our  service  who  is  known  as  a 
live-wire  is  a  man  who  is  constantly  on  the  alert  to  im- 
prove the  service.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  officer  to  try 
to  inculcate  initiative  in  those  under  his  control  and  to 
foster  is't)y  every  means  in  his  power.  This  can  best  be 
done  by  assigning  certain  duties  to  subordinates,  giving 
them  general  instructions  relative  to  the  matters  under 
their  charge  and  leaving  the  accomplishment  of  details 
to  their  own  ways  and  means.  The  higher  in  rank  that 
an  officer  gets  the  more  important  it  is  that  he  learn  the 
art  of  supervising,  while  entrusting  to  subordinates  the 
actual  performance  of  details.  On  the  part  of  the  su- 
bordinate who  is  ambitious  to  succeed  every  opportun- 
ity should  be  seized  to  attain  success,  coupled  with  a 
determination  to  put  forth  his  best  endeavors.  No  su- 
bordinate should  ever  miss  a  chance,  however  strenuous 
the  work  required,  to  have  an  independent  command. 

In  carrying  out  any  work  entrusted  to  him,  however, 
the  subordinate  should  be  very  careful  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  true  initiative  and  undue  license. 
Nothing  is  more  irritating  to  a  superior  officer  than  to 
find  that  the  authority  which  he  has  been  willing  to  en- 
trust to  a  subordinate  has  been  made  the  basis,  on  the 
47 


part  of  that  subordinate,  of  exercising  an  authority 
which  was  never  meant  to  be  delegated  to  him. 

True  initiative  is  based  upon  strong  will  power.  Will 
power  is  a  quality  born  in  men  and  not  readily  acquired, 
although  it  may  be  developed  and  increased  by  proper 
care.  No  officer  is  really  valuable  who  has  not  strong 
will  power,  for  with  it  goes  energy,  power  to  accomplish 
work  and  resolute  persistence.  Von  der  Goltz  says  that 
"Sway  over  others  is  before  all  else  founded  upon  will." 
Usually  accompanying  strong  will  is  self-confidence.  A 
man  who  has  self-confidence  has  the  courage  of  his 
convictions  and  is  rarely  possessed  of  doubt. 

These  two  qualities,  initiative  and  confidence,  almost 
invariably  are  accompanied  by  a  most  valuable  quality 
—that  of  willingness  to  bear  responsibility.  Among  all 
desirable  qualities  which  an  officer  can  possess  scarcely 
any  are  to  be  rated  higher  than  the  power  of  initiative 
and  the  confidence  in  himself  to  attain  the  ends  which 
he  has  in  view. 

COMPLAINTS 

The  officer  on  duty  with  troops  is  bound  sooner  or 
later  to  have  to  deal  with  complaints  on  the  part  of 
some  of  his  men.  The  handling  of  complaints  is  a 
pretty  good  test  of  an  officer's  ability  to  manage  men. 

If  too  much  encouragement  be  given  complaints 
there  is  sure  to  be  a  growing  number  of  men  in  every 
company  who  will  always  be  ready  to  complain  on  one 
score  or  another.  Very  frequently  the  complaints  are 
ae-ainst  non-commissioned  officers ;  it  is  not  infrequently 
the  case  that  they  are  well  founded,  and  the  neglect  to 
48 


entertain  and  investigate  them  would  leave  a  festering 
sore  that  would  be  bad  for  discipline  and  that  would  en- 
gender discontent.  It  takes  good  judgment  to  handle 
complaints  satisfactorily — so  as  neither  to  weaken  the 
authority  of  the  non-commissioned  officer  nor  to  allow 
the  complainant  to  go  away  feeling  that  he  has  not  had 
a  square  deal.  , 

Some  officers  allow  men  to  come  to  them  freely  with 
complaints  without  ever  having  spoken  to  any  non-com- 
missioned officer  nor  to  the  first  sergeant.  Other  offi- 
cers never  receive  any  complaints,  or  if  they  do  it  is  in 
such  a  grudging  and  inritable  way  that  the  man  feels 
that  he  has  not  had  justice  done.  I  believe  that  a  safe 
rule  in  hearing  complaints  of  men  in  a  company  is  to 
insist  that  each  one  shall  have  permission  from  the  first 
sergeant  before  being  allowed  to  come  to  the  officer  to 
state  his  case.  At  the  same  time  the  first  sergeant 
should  have  direct  and  positive  instructions  that  he 
must  report  to  the  captain  every  complaint  that  he  re- 
ceives. When  the  complaint  has  been  heard  the  man 
must  be  given  a  square  deal.  If  it  is  a  case  in  which 
the  non-commissioned  officer  is  to  blame  a  reprimand 
should  in  the  usual  case  be  given  in  private. 

The  officer  must  always  bear  in  mind  his  duty  to  sup- 
port non-commissioned  officers  who  are  attempting  to 
maintain  discipline,  but  no  non-commissioned  officer  is 
entitled  to  support  at  the  expense  of  doing  justice  to 
the  men  under  his  control.  -^ 


49 


NEATNESS 

If  a  regiment  is  stood  iVi  line  for  inspection  it  is  often 
possible  to  pick  out  the  best  and  most  efficient  company 
in  that  regiment  by  walking  down  the  line  and  select- 
ing the  one  that  presents  the  best  and  neatest  appear- 
ance. 

When  an  inspector  lo6ks  a  company  over  and  finds 
many  men  who  are  not  properly  shaven ;  and  a  consid- 
erable proportion  have  grease  spots  on  their  coats  and 
dust  on  their  shoes,  and  a  goodly  number  with  hair  that 
needs  trimming;  when  he  finds  that  the  equipment  is  in 
poor  shape  and  that  there  is  a  lack  of  uniformity  in  the 
way  that  it  is  worn,  he  can  feel  pretty  sure  that  the  in- 
struction and  general  efficiency  of  that  company  will 
correspond  to  its  outward  appearance. 

Neatness  is  a  prime  military  virtue.  Therefore,  the 
young  officer  should  strive  for  it  with  might  and  main. 
There  is  no  one  thing  for  which  American  soldiers 
have  been  more  constantly  criticised  than  in  their 
slouchy  appearance;  in  their  lack  of  care  in  the  details 
of  presenting  a  neat  and  soldierly  appearance.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  we  are  entirely  too  careless  in  this  re- 
spect. Everything  about  a  military  organization  ought 
to  be  a  model  of  order,  arrangement  and  neatness.  The 
mess  room,  kitchen,  barracks,  billet,  tents,  clothing  and 
equipment  of  the  men,  in  fact,  everything  connected 
with  the  company,  should  receive  scrupulous  care.  It 
is  here  especially  that  the  officer  sets  the  example  and 
he  can  not  be  too  careful.  Some  officers  are  disgrace- 
fully negligent  in  this  respect. 
50 


I  once  inspected  a  company  that,  in  the  absence  of 
its  permanent  commander,  was  temporarily  commanded 
by  a  lieutenant,  who  was  an  intelligent  officer  and  a 
graduate  of  West  Point.  He  was  not  at  all  responsible 
for  the  condition  of  the  company,  being  only  temporar- 
ily on  duty  with  it,  but  I  found  it  to  be  in  excellent 
condition  and  every  man  was  spick  and  span  in  appear- 
ance. I  have  seldom  seen  a  company  that  presented  a 
better  appearance  and  I  remarked  to  that  effect  to  the 
lieutenant  who  seemed  to  be  much  delighted  that  the 
company  had  made  such  a  fine  showing.  When  the 
company  had  been  dismissed  and  we  had  gone  alone 
into  the  orderly  room  I  remarked  to  the*  lieutenant  that 
it  was  a  pity  that  a  single  man  in  the  company  should 
be  able  to  do  so  much  to  detract  from  its  general  show- 
ing. He  began  at  once  to  stammer  and  explain  that  he 
must  have  overlooked  the  man  I  had  in  mind,  as  he  had 
not  heard  me  speak  about  it  in  ranks.  I  told  him  that 
I  was  not  in  a  position  to  speak  about  it  at  that  time 
but  that  when  he  went  home,  if  he  took  a  look  in  the 
mirror,  he  would  have  a  good  chance  to  observe  the 
man  I  had  reference  to.  He  was  unshaven ;  there  were 
spots  on  his  coat;  his  shoes  and  leggings  were  not  well 
polished,  and  I  felt  it  a  shame  that  a  man  who  drew 
high  salary  for  instructing  others  should  present  the 
poorest  appearance  of  any  man  in  the  company. 

It  ought  to  be  a  matter  of  pride  on  the  part  of  the 
officer  to  see  how  neat  he  can  keep  his  company  and  he 
can  do  no  more  helpful  thing  in  this  respect  than  to  set 
for  his  men  an  example  that  they  will  emulate. 
51 


SALUTING 

There  is  hardly  anything  in  which  the  American 
Army  is  more  negligent  than  in  the  matter  of  saluting; 
there  is  scarcely  anything  in  which  it  makes  as  bad  an 
appearance.  We  have  never  been  a  military  people  and 
the  great  mass  of  our  fellow  citizens  have  been  in- 
clined to  look  upon  salutes  on  the  part  of  the  soldier  as 
a  mark  of  inferiority  or  a  badge  of  servility. 

A  great  many  American  soldiers  render  the  salute  in 
a  shame-faced  sort  of  way.  Many  of  them  dodge  it 
entirely  by  pretending  not  to  see  the  officer.  One  has 
only  to  walk  along  the  streets  of  the  city  where  there 
are  many  soldiers  passing  to  verify  the  foregoing  state- 
ment. As  a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  could  be  further 
from  the  truth  than  that  the  salute  is  a  mark  of  ser- 
vility or  inferiority.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  only  an  ex- 
change of  courtesies  between  men  who  are  in  the  mili- 
tary service.  If  a  soldier  is  required  to  salute  the  of- 
ficer there  is  the  same  requirement  that  the  officer  shall 
return  the  salute  and  it  is  done  in  the  same  way. 

In  civil  life  the  young  man  who  is  employed  in  a  bank 
or  store  would  be  regarded  as  decidedly  uncivil  and 
lacking  in  courtesy  and  proper  respect  if  he  failed  on 
entering  his  place  of  employment  to  greet  those  over 
him.  It  is  not  at  all  belittling,  not  at  all  a  badge  of  ser- 
vility for  the  bank  clerk  to  say,  "Good  morning"  to  the 
cashier  when  he  comes  into  the  room.  Neither  is  it  at 
all  a  badge  of  inferiority  for  the  soldier  to  salute  his 
officer.  Carelessness  and  indifference  on  the  part  of 
our  soldiers  and  sailors  in  this  respect  is  most  harmful 
52 


to  discipline.  Discipline  requires  that  the  soldier  shall 
salute  his  officer  and  when  this  requirement  is  neglected 
it  establishes  on  the  part  of  the  soldier  a  habit  of  neg- 
lect which  will  extend  to  other  matters. 

I  fear  that  in  large  part  our  carelessness  in  this  re- 
spect is  due  to  the  fact  that  many  men  are  placed  in  the 
uniform  who  have  never  had  any  military  instruction. 
Some  time  ago  on  the  streets  of  New  York  City  I  met 
three  men  in  uniform  and  they  passed  me  without  pay- 
ing the  slightest  attention  so  that  I  went  back  and  ques- 
tioned one  of  them  as  to  how  much  service  he  had  had 
and  he  told  me  none  at  all.  These  men  had  just  that 
morning  put  on  their  uniforms  getting  ready  to  go 
across  the  sea.  They  were  civilian  employees  of  the 
Engineer  Department,  clothed  in  the  uniform  of  the 
combatant  troops  with  the  words  "Civilian  Employee" 
in  small  letters  on  the  left  sleeve  quite  inconspicuous 
at  a  distance. 

The  importance  of  the  salute  and  what  is  meant  by 
it  is  impossible  to  over-estimate.  It  is  a  mark  of  the 
soldier's  respect  for  his  officer.  At  the  very  beginning 
of  the  Bolsheviki  reign  the  Soldier's  and  Workman's 
Congress  passed  a  resolution  as  follows:  "The  men  will 
not  in  future  salute  officers."  That  was  th€  first  step 
toward  the  downfall  of  the  Russian  military  forces. 
In  quoting  this  resolution,  Colonel  Applin  of  the  Brit- 
ish General  Staff  writes,  "Now  isn't  that  a  trifle?  Yet 
that  small  trifle  has  led  to  the  telegram  that  reads,  *The 
troops  have  left  the  trenches.  The  artillery  h  being 
sold.     Officers  are  serving  as  cooks  and  orderlies.' " 

We  are  supposed  in  this  country  to  be  free  from  the 


miserable  propaganda  of  the  Bolsheviki  and  yet  it  was 
not  a  great  while  ago  that  a  resolution  was  introduced 
iriti^  Congress  by  one  of  its  members  providing  that  sol- 
diers should  be  required  to  salute  no  officer  except 
those  of  their  immediate  organization.  It  seems  strange 
that  our  people  cannot  get  it  into  their  heads  that  the 
salute  is  the  very  foundation  of  military  respect  and 
courtesy.  Neglect  in  this  matter  is  ruinous  to  disci- 
pline.    . 

I  am  convinced  there  are  two  main  reasons  why  our 
soldiers  are  so  careless  in  the  matter  of  saluting  offi- 
cers. The  first  is  that  they  are  not  properly  and  thor- 
oughly instructed,  that  they  are  allowed  to  pass  officers 
without  saluting  or  to  do  it  in  a  most  improper  way, 
and  all  without  correction;  and  secondly,  that  a  great 
many  of  our  officers  are  themselves  most  negligent  in 
the  way  they  return  salutes.  It  ought  to  be  a  matter  of 
pride  on  the  part  of  every  officer  carefully  and  puncti- 
liously to  return  the  courtesies  of  soldiers.  If  more 
regard  were  given  to  this  matter  we  would  soon  find  a 
very  different  status  from  that  which  now  exists. 

DESERTION 

Of  all  things  in  our  service  which  are  harmful  to 
military  efficiency  few  of  them  are  equal  in  importance 
to  desertion.  We  are  not  a  military  people  and  a  great 
many  of  our  fellow  citizens  have  not  looked  upon  the 
military  service  with  any  degree  of  interest  or  of  affec- 
tion. By  many  of  our  people  the  seriousness  of  the 
crime  of  desertion  is  not  appreciated.  They  regard  the 
soldier  who  deserts  in  the  same  light  as  a  civilian  who 
54 


has  made  an  agreement  to  render  certain  services  and 
then  quits  his  job.  The  heinousness  of  the  offense  of 
taking  an  oath  to  follow  the  country  and  to  serve  the 
country's  flag,  and  then  violating  that  oath  is  lacking  in 
civilian  estimation. 

In  many  countries  where  military  service  in  time  of 
peace  is  much  more  popular  than  in  our  own,  the  de- 
serter is  despised  and  detested  and  he  is  given  over  to 
the  hands  of  the  authorities  as  soon  as  he  is  discov- 
ered. It  is  not  so  in  our  country.  On  the  contrary,  in 
many  of  our  communities  the  deserter  is  shielded  and 
protected.  It  is  my  opinion  that  one  of  the  great  rea- 
sons for  this  state  of  affairs  is  the  fact  that  our  army 
and  the  great  mass  of  people — at  least  before  the  be- 
ginning of  this  war — were  too  far  apart.  The  people 
saw  too  little  of  the  army  to  know  its  needs  or  to  ap- 
preciate its  work.  The  greatest  aid  that  can  come  to 
our  military  service  is  a  closer  union  between  the  army 
and  the  pople.  '^ 

In  large  part  desertion  will  cease  as  soon  as  the  sol- 
dier knows  that  he  has  thereby  committed  a  crime 
which  makes  him  despicable  to  his  comrades  in  civil 
life.  While  I  am  sure  that  desertions  in  our  army 
are  largely  the  result  of  the  fact  that  the  serious- 
ness of  the  crime  is  not  appreciated  by  our  civilian 
population,  I  am  confident  that  the  number  of  de- 
sertions in  our  army  would  be  greatly  lessened  by 
proper  effort  on  the  part  of  our  officers.  Too  many  of 
our  officers  apparently  go  on  the  supposition  that  the 
only  way  to  check  desertion  is  by  punishment  afier  the 

55 


crime  has  been  committed  and  the  soldier  is  again 
within  military  control.  They  never  do  anything  to 
prevent  the  crime  from  taking  place.  I  state  it  as  a 
fact,  which  I  believe  could  be  established  without  diffi- 
culty, that  a  very  large  proportion  of  our  men  who  de- 
sert leave  the  colors  and  break  their  oath  without  even 
having  heard  a  single  officer  raise  his  voice  to  caution 
them  against  committing  this  great  crime.  Many  of  our 
officers  when  asked  about  desertion  merely  state  that  a 
certain  number  of  men  have  deserted  and  then  on  their 
part  ask,  "What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?"  If  any 
officer  is  satisfied  to  have  men  desert  from  his  company 
without  his  ever  taking  any  steps  whatever  to  prevent 
it  he  has  failed  in  his  duty  and  he  has  not  done  what 
the  Government  has  a  right  to  expect.  The  officer  has 
a  certain  duty  which  he  owes  to  himself  and  to  his 
Government  and  if  he  shirks  it  the  blame,  in  part  at 
least,  can  be  placed  upon  his  shoulders. 

Every  recruit  who  joins  a  company  ought  to  be  talked 
to  on  this  subject;  he  ought  to  be  instructed  thoroughly 
by  his  officer  as  to  the  difference  that  exists  between 
a  mere  civil  contract  and  an  oath  of  enlistment.  He 
should  understand  the  difference  between  a  man  who 
makes  a  bargain  in  civil  life  and  then  changes  his  mind 
and  the  man  who  raises  his  hand  and  takes  a  solemn 
oath  to  serve  his  country  and  follow  the  flag,  and  then 
breaks  that  oath.  It  is  up  to  the  officer  to  explain  this 
difference  to  the  young  soldier,  not  by  long  sermons, 
but  by  such  brief  talks  to  his  men  as  will  put  into  the 
company  a  spirit  of  detestation  for  that  man  who  en- 
gages to  serve  his  country  and  then  violates  his  oath. 
56 


DISCIPLINE 

That  which  distinguishes  the  trained  military  force 
from  the  mob  is  discipline.  It  is  a  most  difficult  quality 
to  secure.  Our  vast  resources  make  it  possible  to  pur- 
chase ships,  munitions  and  supplies  of  every  kind.  If 
we  are  short  on  supplies  we  can  go  into  the  market  and 
buy  them,  but  no  financial  resources  can  purchase  dis- 
cipline because  it  is  not  for  sale.  It  can  be  provided 
only  by  the  slow  laborious  process  of  constant  care 
and  persistent  effort.  In  his  admirable  lecture  on  this 
subject,  Colonel  Applin  of  the  British  General  Staff 
defines  discipline  as,  "instant  and  willing  obedience  to 
all  orders,  and  in  the  absence  of  orders,  to  what  you 
believe  the  order  would  have  been."  ^ 

Discipline  is  the  very  soul  of  armies,  difficult  to  ac- 
quire, but  capable  of  being  lost  almost  immediately. 
The  means  of  acquiring  discipline  vary  according  to 
the  characteristics  of  the  people.  The  methods  which 
succeed  in  one  country  will  fail  entirely  in  another.  In 
referring  to  this  subject  General  Applin  says,  "First  of 
all,  our  enemy  has  it  in  the  most  extraordinary  degree. 
He  has  an  iron  military  discipline  such  as  the  vvorld 
has  probably  never  seen,  or  certainly  never  since  the 
time  of  the  Romans.  And  what  discipline  is  it?  It  is 
the  discipline  of  force,  brought  to  a  great  point  by  an 
autocracy.  It  is  the  discipline  of  the  lash,  and  the  of- 
ficer thinks  nothing  of  lashing  his  men  across  the  face 
for  not  standing  at  attention  properly.  It  is  the  disci- 
pline that  sends  the  men  to  death  at  the  point  of  the 
officer's  revolver  who  stands  behind,,  but  it  is  neverthe- 
57 


less  a  discipline,  and  we  must  get  a  better  discipline 
than  this  or  we  cannot  defeat  the  enemy." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  means  of  enforcing 
discipline  in  the  German  army  as  above  described, 
would  never  be  tolerated  for  a  moment  in  our  own 
country.  The  American  officer  who  would  lash  a  sol- 
dier across  the  face  for  not  standing  at  attention  prop- 
erly would  not  last  longer  than  it  would  take  to  con- 
vene a  courtmartial  for  his  trial.  With  us  the  only 
means  of  discipline  that  is  likely  to  succeed  is  that 
which  has  for  its  object  the  development  of  a  willing 
and  cheerful  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  soldier.  The 
officer  who  knows  how  to  attain  this  end  is  an  ex- 
tremely valuable  one.  The  autocratic  methods  of  Ger- 
many are  based  upon  unlimited  power  of  the  officer  and 
upon  fear  on  the  part  of  the  soldier  which  has  been  in- 
stilled by  many  years  of  application  of  the  method  of 
force.  To  establish  thorough  discipline  in  an  organi- 
zation is  not  an  easy  task  and  we  may  as  well  recognize 
rome  of  the  difficulties  at  the  beginning.  In  plain  truth 
tnc  young  American  is  more  difficult  to  discipline  than 
the  soldier  of  almost  any  other  nationality.  This  may 
not  be  a  pleasant  truth  but  it  is  truth  just  the  same. 

"We  are  all  sovereigns  in  America"  makes  fine  read- 
ing but  it  does  not  make  fine  soldiers.  No  man  can  be 
a  good  soldier  until  he  has  thoroughly  learned  the 
lesson  that  the  principal  duty  of  a  soldier  is  not  to  be 
a  sovereign  but  to  obey  "his  orders.  And  "there's  the 
rub"  with  the  young  American.  All  his  life-time  he 
has  been  accustomed  to  doing  as  he  pleases.  We  do 
not  any  of  us  lay  aside  the  habits  and  the  training  of  a 
58 


life-time  without  considerable  struggling  and  consider- 
able misgivings.  The  young  man  who  has  been  accus- 
tomed to  being  his  own  master  and  to  making  up  his 
own  mind  as  he  goes  along  does  not  take  kindly  to  the 
restriction's  which  discipline  imposes.  There  are  two 
principal  methods  of  enforcing  discipline — first,  by 
force,  which  is  used  to  a  large  extent  by  the  Germans, 
and  the  second,  based  on  common  sense,  pride  and  pat- 
riotism. Our  people  would  never  stand  for  the  Ger- 
man method.  It  is  foreign  to  our  whole  national  char- 
acter and  should  not  be  considered  for  a  moment.  At 
the  same  time  no  discipline  can  accomplish  much  if 
force  is  lacking  when  it  becomes  necessary.  The  true 
method  of  establishing  discipline  is  by  reliance  upon 
the  pride  of  the  soldier;  by  appeals  to  his  common 
sense;  and  by  force  of  example. 

AMUSEMENTS  AND  RECREATION 

"All  work  and  no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy"  is  just 
as  true  of  the  young  soldier  as  it  is  of  the  young 
civilian. 

Some  officers  take  very  little  interest  in  their  men 
outside  of  bare  official  requirements.  When  this  is  the 
case  it  is  unfortunate.  Officers  should  feel  a  lively  in- 
terest in  whatever  will  add  to  the  pleasure  and  content- 
ment of  their  men.  Efficient  soldiers  are  generally  con- 
tented ones,  and  you  cannot  keep  young  American  sol- 
diers contented  within  the  bare  walls  of  a  barrack 
building  without  providing  some  form  of  amusement. 
If  the  officer  responsible  in  this  matter  does  not  take 
sufficient  interest  to  provide  adequate  facilities  for 
59 


amusement  and  for  recreation  the  men  will  look  around 
and  become  interested  in  the  first  thing  that  comes  to 
hand.  During  the  proper  seasons  of  the  year  physical 
contests  and  out  of  door  games  are  the  best  sources  of 
recreation  for  soldiers  because  they  serve  to  develop 
the  physical  powers  of  the  soldier  and  have  a  tendency 
to  interest  him  in  normal  and  healthy  recreation.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  months  a  bowling  alley,  a  few  pool 
tables,  an  amusement  room,  a  good  reading  room  sup- 
plied with  magazines  and  books  are  all  aids  to  content- 
ment and  hence  are  aids  to  discipline. 

The  amusement  and  recreation  of  soldiers  affords  a 
fine  field  for  the  activities  of  young  officers.  In  this 
field  they  can  do  much  pleasant  work  and  at  the  same 
time  gain  much  useful  knowledge  in  the  management 
of  men.  If  the  services  of  our  young  officers  who  are 
graduates  of  West  Point  and  the  colleges  and  univer- 
sities were  properly  utilized  they  would  be  invaluable 
in  the  way  of  supervising  out-door  sports  and  gymnas- 
tic exercises  of  their  men.  These  subjects  all  receive 
great  attention  at  West  Point,  and  also  at  the  various 
colleges  and  universities,  which  are  the  sources  from 
which  we  have  derived  many  excellent  young  officers  in 
recent  months. 

LANGUAGE  AND  MANNERS  OF  SOLDIERS 
Any  close  observer  would  be  surprised  to  see  what  a 
difference  there  is  between  companies  at  the  same  sta- 
tion and  some  times  in  the  same  regiment  in  respect  to 
the  language  and  manners  of  the  men.  That  difference 
like  many  other  differences  between  companies  is  due 
60 


to  the  individual  equation  of  the  officers  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  organization. 

Truth  compels  the  statement  that  neither  the  lan- 
guage nor  the  manners  of  many  of  our  soldiers  are 
what  they  ought  to  be.  Most  officers  will  readily  admit 
this  to  be  the  fact.  I  do  not  draw  attention  to  this  un- 
pleasant statement  except  to  place  the  blame  where  it 
ought  to  be — upon  the  officers  who  are  responsible  for 
the  organization,  and  to  say  that  there  can  be  most 
radical  and  pleasant  change  in  this  respect  if  the  offi- 
cers will  exhibit  a  little  needed  attention.  All  of  our 
older  officers  will  admit  that  the  young  soldiers  of 
many  organizations  have  a  bad  habit  of  using  disgust- 
ing, vulgar  and  obscene  language — language  that  would 
bring  a  touch  of  shame  to  the  cheeks  of  any  decent 
woman.  It  is  not  infrequently  the  case  that  this  dis- 
gusting language  is  used  in  the  presence  and  in  the 
hearing  of  officers  without  any  effort  on  their  part  to 
check  it. 

I  am  not  a  prude  and  I  am  not  shocked  when  I  hear 
a  soldier  or  any  one  else  utter  an  ordinary  oath ;  but  the 
vile,  obscene  language  which  some  officers  permit  to  be 
used  in  their  hearing  with  no  word  of  protest,  is  dis- 
gusting in  the  extreme.  No  officer  worthy  of  the  name 
ought  to  permit  it  for  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  correct. 
Nothing  more  is  needed  than  a  few  words  to  the  effect 
that  this  kind  of  language  will  not  be  tolerated  in  the 
company.  Lay  the  law  down  to  the  non-commissioned 
officers;  award  a  few  hours  of  kitchen  police  to  first 
offenders,  and  there  will  be  no  subsequent  violations. 
61 


Some  officers  pay  very  little  attention  to  the  manners 
of  their  men.  When  I  was  an  inspector  I  used  to  drop 
in  some  times  at  meal  hours  of  the  organizations  at  the 
post  where  I  was  making  an  inspection.  I  sometimes 
found  the  greatest  difference  between  companies.  Some 
captains  required  their  men  to  come  to  meals  in  proper 
uniform  and  the  company  presented  a  good  appearance 
while  at  meals.  In  other  ccompanies  men  were  per- 
mitted to  straggle  in  at  will,  barefoot,  wearing  under- 
shirt, blue  denim  overalls,  or  any  other  old  thing  that 
came  handy,  looking  for  all  the  world  like  a  lot  of  cow- 
boys at  a  "chuck  wagon  dinner." 

If  an  officer  lets  his  men  run  wild — if  he  permits 
them  to  use  any  language  they  wish,  however  vile  or 
obscene — if  he  allows  them  to  come  to  meals  bare-foot 
and  in  undershirt,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  same  spirit 
will  characterize  the  performance  of  all  that  they  un- 
dertake. 

LEADERSHIP 

This  is  the  most  serious  part  of  the  officer's  business. 
It  is  toward  fitting  himself  for  this  most  important 
work  that  all  of  an  officer's  energy  should  tend.  To  be 
a  real  leader  of  men  is  the  summit  of  an  officer's  use- 
fulness. Few  officers  attain  it  in  eminent  degree.  No- 
body can  tell  just  what  are  the  indispensable  qualities 
that  produce  the  desired  effect. 

Captain  (now  Brigadier  General)  Andrews,  says,    "A 
good  leader  is  as  one  with  his  men,  he  speaks  their  lan- 
guage, he  shares  their  blessings  and  their  hardships,  he 
is  jealous  of  their  name,  he  defends  their  sensibilities 
62 


and  their  rights  in  the  larger  organization,  in  fact  he  is 
the  recognized  guardian  of  their  welfare,  physical  and 
mental  as  individuals  and  as  a  group.  He  becomes 
their  hero  and  is  affectionately  nick-named.  Making 
camp  after  a  hard  march  he  will  not  accept  an  invita- 
tion to  lunch  while  his  men  go  hungry  awaiting  a  de- 
layed wagon ;  he  would  not  take  shelter  while  his  men 
lay  out  in  a  storm.  In  short  he  does  everything  at  all 
times  to  make  them  feel  that  he  is  looking  out  for 
their  interests,  not  his  own  selfish  comfort.  It  is  in- 
cidentally true  that  when  hardships  come  he  will  be 
more  than  repaid  by  their  devotion  to  him  and  care  for 
his  comfort." 

Leadership  is  based  on  a  knowledge  and  a  correct 
appreciation  of  the  enormous  value  of  the  spirit  which 
actuates  men.  Napoleon's  opinion  is  embodied  in  his 
famous  maxim  that:  "in  war  the  moral  is  to  the  physi- 
cal as  three  to  one."  Marmont  said:  "A  leader's 
knowledge  of  war  is  incomplete  if  in  addition  to  his 
skill  in  conceiving  technical  combinations  he  does  not 
possess  a  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  if  he  has  not 
the  power  of  gauging  the  momentary  temper  of  his 
own  troops  and  also  that  of  the  enemy." 

Leadership  must  accommodate  itself  to  the  men  who 
are  led.  Napoleon  was  wont  to  arouse  his  soldiers  to 
wild  enthusiasm  by  harangues  addressed  to  the  imagina- 
tion of  his  men.  Similar  harangues  addressed  to 
American  soldiers  would  fall  flat.  Yet  the  American 
soldier  is  just  as  susceptible  to  the  influence  of  his 
officer  as  the  French  soldier ;  the  only  difference  is  that 
the  influence  must  be  exerted  in  a  way  to  accommo- 
63 


date  itself  to  his  national  characteristics,  and  this  brings 
us  back  to  the  statement  already  made,  that  the  young 
ofEcer  who  desires  to  succeed  must  carefully  study  his 
men.  All  men  cannot  be  managed  in  the  same  way. 
There  is  as  much  difference  between  men  as  there  is 
between  children  and  the  officer  will  have  best  success 
who  recognizes  this  fact  and  works  upon  it.  Every 
group  of  men  working  together  soon  comes  to  have  a 
soul  of  its  own.  This  is  so  regardless  of  the  size  or 
the  nationality  of  the  group,  it  is  true  of  a  squad  and 
it  is  true  of  an  army.  The  leader  who  learns  to  know 
that  spirit  has  acquired  a  grip  that  is  invaluable.  Gen- 
eral Andrews  well  says,  "There  are  many  means  of 
appeal  to  this  spirit;  you  must  learn  to  use  them.  You 
can  make  lagging  foot-steps  quicken  and  fatigue-dulled 
minds  brighten,  just  as  martial  music  will  make  a  jaded 
column  spring  to  life;  the  men  are  no  less  tired,  but 
new  nerve-forces  have  supervened  and  made  them  for- 
get the  fatigue.  This  soul  is  as  susceptible  to  bad  in- 
fluences as  to  good.  How  disastrous  if  the  leader 
offend  it.  How  important  that  he  be  in  touch  with  it, 
and  treat  it  intelligently." 

RESPECT  FOR  THE  UNIFORM 

Those  of  us  who  have  been  many  years  in  the  army 
can  recall  without  difficulty  the  many  articles  that  have 
appeared  in  our  service  journals  and  in  the  public 
press  bewailing  the  lack  of  respect  on  the  part  of  the 
public  at  large  for  the  uniform  of  our  soldiers  and 
sailors.  A  few  years  ago  the  discussion  of  this  subject 
was  acute.  Many  states  passed  laws  intended  to  pre- 
64 


vent  invidious  distinction  against  the  wearers  of  their 
country's  uniform.  Restaurants,  theatres,  dance  halls 
and  other  places  of  amusement  were  the  chief  offenders. 

It  seems  queer  that  in  a  free  country  the  uniform 
of  that  country  should  meet  with  disfavor;  but  it  is 
of  no  use  to  deny  the  facts.  In  some  of  our  moving 
picture  films  the  young  hero  was  occasionally  repre- 
sented as  pursued  by  relentless  fate:  things  went 
against  him  and  he  lost  one  position  after  another 
until  at  last  he  paused  before  a  sign  reading:  "Men 
wanted  for  the  United  States  Army."  Apparently  that 
was  the  last  straw.  Cruel  fate  could  pursue  him  no 
further.  It  is  strange  that  many  of  our  fellow  citizens 
should  look  upon  the  young  man  applying  at  the  re- 
cruiting station  as  the  victim  of  ill  fortune  and  should 
shun  association  with  him  because  he  wears  his  coun- 
try's uniform. 

Many  explanations  have  been  given  for  this  unfavor- 
able opinion.  Some  have  attributed  it  in  large  part  to 
the  hostility  of  certain  labor  unions,  and  especially  to 
the  propaganda  of  such  bodies  as  the  I.  W.  W.  In 
part,  perhaps,  these  explanations  serve  to  explain — but 
in  part  only.  In  my  opinion  the  fault  can  be  laid  in 
large  part  at  the  door  of  the  Army  itself.  I  feel  quite 
sure  that  the  remedy  is  in  our  own  hands,  if  we  will 
but  use  it.  People  usually  respect  that  which  is  re- 
spectable. It  is  a  fact  that  prior  to  the  present  war 
it  was  not  an  unusual  sight  to  see  soldiers  parading  the 
streets  while  under  the  influence  of  liquor. 

It  is  also  a  fact  that  many  of  our  non-commissioned 
officers  and  our  best  men  passed  these  drunken  soldiers 
65 


with  never  an  effort  to  correct  the  abuse.  Some  of  our 
soldiers  wear  their  uniform  into  low  dives  and  places 
of  questionable  reputation.  A  civilian  who  is  under  the 
influence  of  liquor  and  reels  while  walking  on  the 
street  attracts  comparatively  little  attention.  It  is  not 
so  with  the  soldier,  for  his  uniform  serves  to  make  him 
conspicuous.  The  soldier  whom  the  public  shuns  is  not 
the  neat,  self-respecting  young  man.  The  soldier  who 
gives  the  army  a  black  eye  is  the  man  who  wears  his 
uniform  while  reeling  in  the  street  or  while  visiting 
low  dives  or  brothels. 

If  the  army  is  to  do  its  share  toward  raising  the 
uniform  to  its  proper  plane  in  public  estimation,  the 
right  place  for  us  to  start  is  with  the  man  who  wears 
the  uniform.  When  all  our  soldiers  are  neat,  respect- 
able, orderly  and  sober,  we  shall  have  no  more  trouble 
about  the  question  of  proper  respect  for  the  uniform. 

The  present  war  with  its  feature  of  universal  con- 
scription and  the  acute  interest  of  the  country  in  all 
men  who  wear  the  uniform  has  wrought  a  wonderful 
change  in  the  attitude  of  the  people  towards  the  army. 
There  is  now  the  kindliest  feeling  towards  all  soldiers. 
The  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Red  Cross,  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  the  various  Camp  Welfare  associations,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  tremendous  number  of  local  and 
municipal  organizations,  have  all  done  a  great  work  in 
providing  for  the  comfort  and  the  pleasure  of  our 
soldiers. 

This    interest   has    not    been    at   all    confined    to    the 
activities  of  organized  associations.    The  hospitalities  of 
numerous  private  homes  has  shown  how  general  is  the 
66 


interest  in  the  soldier.  If  this  present  war  has  done 
no  other  good  to  the  army  it  has  at  least  served  to 
bring  into  closer  union  the  great  mass  of  our  people 
and  the  soldiers  who  wear  the  country's  uniform.  This 
interest  will  doubtless  continue  after  the  war  is  over. 
The  thousands  who  now  wear  the  uniform  and  who  will 
return  to  civil  life  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  will 
be  a  leaven  to  the  country  at  large.  Let  us  hope  the 
time  may  never  come  again  when  there  will  be  any 
lessening  of  the  present  kindly  feeling  of  the  people 
towards  the  wearers  of  the  uniform. 

CARING  FOR  GOVERNMENT  PROPERTY 

One  of  the  important  duties  of  officers  is  to  see  that 
proper  care  is  taken  of  Government  property.  Too 
often  this  important  duty  is  neglected.  Under  existing 
orders  the  Government  furnishes,  as  may  be  needed, 
clothing  and  equipment  for  soldiers  and  there  is  no 
charge  against  the  soldier  for  what  he  receives.  Often- 
times there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  soldier 
to  mutilate  or  destroy  Government  property  in  order 
that  it  may  be  replaced  by  that  which  is  fresher  or 
newer.  It  is  the  business  of  the  officer  carefully  to 
watch  and  protect  the  interests  of  the  Government  in 
this  matter. 

Sometime  ago  when  I  was  an  Inspector  a  large  num- 
ber of  blankets*  were  placed  before  me  and  I  noted 
they  were  all  torn  in  practically  the  same  way.  In- 
vestigation showed  that  they  had  been  torn  under  the 
supervision  of  the  young  officer  who  corhmanded  the 
company    because    he    wanted    his    men    to    have    new 

a 


blankets.  He  had  to  pay  personally  for  the  damage 
which  he  had  done  to  Government  property  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  the  lesson  in  his  case  was  a  salutary  one. 
It  ought  to  be  a  matter  of  pride  to  officers  to  aid  the 
Government  by  seeing  that  the  best  possible  care  is 
taken  of  all  property  issued  to  soldiers  and  to  build 
up  among  the  men  a  feeling  of  their  duty  to  the 
Government  in  this  respect. 

SAVING  MONEY 

The  Government  makes  provision  for  allowing  any 
soldier  to  deposit  money  with  the  paymaster  and  binds 
itself  to  pay  interest  of  four  per  cent,  on  deposits. 
This  apparently  is  a  small  matter  but  it  is  one  which 
ought  not  be  neglected. 

In  the  first  place,  depositing  money  with  the  pay- 
master inculcates  in  the  young  soldier  an  idea  of  thrift. 
In  the  second  place,  when  he  deposits  his  money  he 
hasn't  so  much  to  s^end  uselessly.  And  lastly,  when 
a  soldier  has  money  on  deposit  with  the  Government 
the  officer  who  has  charge  of  that  soldier  has  a  grip 
upon  him  that  is  quite  useful.  Rarely  does  any  sol- 
dier desert  who  has  considerable  money  with  the 
Government;  rarely  does  he  go  absent  without  leave; 
and  not  often  is  the  soldier  who  deposits  money  ad- 
dicted to  the  use  of  liquor.  It  will  be  found  as  a  rule 
that  those  soldiers  who  deposit  money  with  the  Gov- 
ernment are  the  best  and  most  reliable  men  of  the 
company  and  the  company  commander  has  a  grip  on 
them  that  is  extremely  useful. 
68 


TALKING  TO  SOLDIERS 

Many  of  our  older  officers  are  adverse  to  talking  to 
soldiers,  or,  at  any  rate,  they  never  pursue  that  policy. 
Some  of  them  feel  that  the  only  way  to  manage  a 
soldier  is  by  the  iron  hand  of  the  law.  They  pooh- 
pooh  any  other  method  and  ridicule  what  they  term 
"moral  suasion  methods." 

If  young  soldiers  are  talked  to  in  the  right  way  and 
at  the  right  time  and  just  to  the  right  extent,  it  is  ex- 
tremely useful  to  them.  They  learn  much  in  this  way 
that  they  could  learn  in  no  other.  I  am  convinced  that 
many  of  our  officers  neglect  their  duty  in  this  respect. 
This  remark  has  particular  application  to  our  older 
officers.  Some  of  them  seem  to  act  on  the  principle 
that  a  soldier  should  absorb  all  of  the  things  which  he 
ought  to  know  just  as  a  sponge  absorbs  water.  There 
are  a  great  many  of  our  soldiers  who  get  into  trouble 
and  are  tried  by  court-martial  who  have  never  heard 
a  single  officer  warn  them  against  any  of  the  tempta- 
tions of  a  soldier.  They  have  never  been  told  about 
desertion,  nor  of  the  respect  which  they  owe  to  their 
uniform,  nor  cautioned  against  the  evil  of  drunkenness, 
nor  of  wearing  their  uniform  into  dives  and  disreput- 
able places,  nor  concerning  any  of  the  other  many, 
many  things  which  a  soldier  ought  to  be  told  about. 

In  my  opinion  the  company  officer  who  neglects  his 
duty  in  this  respect  falls  short  of  what  the  Govern- 
ment has  a  right  to  expect,  and  short  of  what  his  own 
judgment  would  tell  him  he  ought  to  do.  If  any  offi- 
cer commands  a  company  and  has  men  desert  whom  he. 
69 


has    never    cautioned    against    committing    that    great 
crime,  he  is,  in  part,  responsible  for  that  desertion. 

On  the  other  hand,  talking  to  soldiers  should  not  be 
carried  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  it  either  a  bore 
or  to  nag  them  by  long,  drawn-out  sermons.  There  is 
a  way  to  do  everything  right  and  the  right  way  to  talk 
to  soldiers  is  to  give  them  a  few  short  sentences  in  re- 
gard to  one  subject  at  a  time.  The  time  to  talk  to 
them  is  when  they  are  not  fatigued  and  the  way  to 
talk  to  them  is  by  looking  them  squarely  in  the  eye, 
say  what  you  have  to  say  and  then  stop. 

ESPRIT 

All  of  an  officer's  efforts  should  be  directed  towards 
creating  the  proper  spirit  in  his  men  both  individually 
and  collectively.  The  soldier  or  the  organization  which 
does  duty  only  because  it  has  to  is  of  very  poor  quality. 

There  are  some  horses  of  mettle  and  spirit  which  it 
is  a  pleasure  to  look  at.  Their  movements  are  free 
and  easy  and  they  work  because  they  like  it;  there  are 
other  horses  which  never  move  unless  there  are  oats 
ahead  of  them  or  a  whip  behind.  It  is  just  so  in  the 
army:  Some  soldiers  and  some  organizations  take  an 
interest  and  a  pride  in  their  work.  Others  drag  along 
and  find  their  chief  interest  only  at  the  mess  table  or 
on  pay  day. 

Therefore,  all  of  an  officer's  efforts  should  be  bent 
upon  developing  an  interest  of  his  men  in  their  work. 
The  result  will  depend  upon  the  officer  himself.  The 
first  requisite  on  the  part  of  the  officer  to  accomplish 
this  result  is  a  live  interest  on  his  own  part.  No  man 
70 


can  create  an  interest  among  men  where  he  feels  no  in- 
terest himself.  One  officer  will  step  in  front  of  a  com- 
pany and  the  men  will  give  a  fine,  snappy  drill;  all  of  the 
men  will  be  right  up  on  their  toes.  Another  officer  may 
take  the  same  company  and  every  movement  will  drag. 
In  establishing  this  interest  an  officer  should  be  care- 
ful to  consider  the  characteristics  of  his  men.  The 
autocratic  methods  that  are  used  in  the  German  army 
would  bring  only  disaster  if  applied  to  the  American 
soldier.  The  German  soldier  will  do  whatever  his  offi- 
cer tells  him.  Years  of  training  have  instilled  into 
him  implicit  obedience  to  the  will  of  his  officers.  With 
the  American' soldier  you  get  best  results  by  explain- 
ing the  reasons  for  things  first.  The  American  will 
endure  privation  and  hardship  as  well  as  any  soldier 
in  the  world  when  privation  and  hardship  are  neces- 
sary, but  he  does  not  like  to  undergo  discomfort  unless 
he  sees  the  necessity  for  it.  For  instance,  the  Ameri- 
can soldier  will  carry  his  heavy  pack  containing  rations, 
and  blankets  and  ammunition  uncomplainingly.  He 
needs  his  blankets,  he  wants  the  food  and  he  may  have 
to  use  his  ammunition.  A  few  years  ago  when  prac- 
tice marches  first  began  it  was  ordered  in  some  com- 
mands that  extra  weight  should  be  provided  by  putting 
small  bags  of  sand  or  bits  of  iron  wrapped  in  cloth 
into  the  soldier's  pack.  The  idea  was  to  harden  the 
soldier  by  getting  him  accustomed  to  the  extra  weight. 
To  many  soldiers  this  plan  was  exceedingly  obnoxious. 
They  did  not  like  the  plan  because  they  could  see  no 
necessity  for  it.  In  soldier  parlance  they  objected  to 
being  used  as  pack  horses. 

71 


The  officer  who  can  develop  in  his  men  a  live  spirit 
is  a  most  valuable  one.  The  means  of  doing  it  are 
various — often-times  competition  is  the  most  successful 
method.  Competition  between  squads  of  the  same  com- 
pany are  most  effective.  Then  the  effort  to  excel  some 
other  company  is  often-times  used  with  great  advan- 
tage. One  officer  under  whom  I  served  was  most  suc- 
cessful in  developing  that  kind  of  individual  interest 
in  his  men  by  keeping  ever  before  them  the  fact  of 
their  individual  responsibility.  If  he  saw  one  of  his 
men  presenting  a  careless  or  slouchy  appearance  he 
would  have  him  sent  to  the  orderly  room  and  would 
say,  "Smith,  I  take  lots  of  interest  in  the  appearance 
of  my  men  and  I  want  you  to  do  it,  too.  Your  present 
appearance  might  do  for  some  other  company  but  it 
won't  do  for  this  one  because  it  is  not  up  to  our 
standard."  By  such  means  he  made  the  men  of  his 
company  take  an  interest  in  themselves  and  an  interest 
in  the  company. 

The  morale  of  armies  is  the  most  valuable  asset  they  . 
can  have,  and  the  morale  of  armies  is  founded  upon  the 
esprit  of  individuals. 

RELATIONS  BETWEEN  OFFICERS  AND 
ENLISTED  MEN 

Under  Army  Regulations  and  .customs  of  the  service 
undue  familiarity  between  officers  and  enlisted  men  is 
forbidden.  Our  country  is  so  wholly  non-military  in 
character  that  many  Americans  have  found  it  hard  to 
understand  this  relationship,  and  have  commented  ad- 
versely upon  it.  Now  that  stress  of  war  is  upon  us 
12 


this  requirement  of  the  regulations  should  be  enforced 
even  more  rigorously  than  in  time  of  peace. 

This  requirement  is  not  founded  r;;^on  any  difference 
in  the  social  status  between  the  officer  and  the  enlisted 
man;  nor  is  it  founded  upon  any  difference  in  culture 
or  mental  attainments.  It  is  founded  solely  upon  the 
demands  of  discipline.  Discipline  requires  an  immedi- 
ate, loyal,  cheerful  compliance  with  the  lawful  orders 
of  the  superior.  Experience  and  human  nature  show 
that  these  objects  cannot  be  readily  attained  when  there 
is  undue  familiarity  between  the  officer  and  those  under 
his  command.  Take  for  instance  a  half  dozen  college 
chums  who  are  ordinarily  intimate,  and  are  accustomed 
to  chaff  one  another  and  to  associate  upon  terms  of  ut- 
most familiarity.  Let  one  of  them  presume  to  give 
some  order  or  some  direction  to  the  others.  What 
happens?  As  like  as  not  the  presumptious  individual 
is  "called  down"  with  a  unanimity  that  is  astounding. 
He  is  lucky  if  he  escapes  without  receiving  some  physi- 
cal reminder  of  his  inability  to  impose  his  own  will 
upon  his  boon  companions.  It  is  an  old  saying  that 
"familiarity  breeds  contempt,"  and  nowhere  is  that 
more  true  than  in  military  life. 

Now  and  then  we  see  officers  who  are  inclined  to 
neglect  or  ignore  the  distinction  that  prevails  in  all 
armies  between  officers  and  men.  Such  officers  are 
never  successful  in  the  management  of  men.  Soldiers 
understand  and  appreciate  the  reasons  and  the  necessi- 
ties which  prevent  undue  familiarity  between  officers 
and   their   subordinates.     They  have   a   thorough   con- 

7Z 


tempt  for  the  officer  who  forgets  his  place  and  his  du- 
ties and  who  neglects  the  requirements  of  orders  and 
regulations.  On  the  other  hand  let  it  be  well  under- 
stood that  there  is  no  place  in  the  American  army  for 
the  rasping,  unreasonable,  martinet.  Our  discipline  is 
not  of  the  German  kind,  founded  upon  force.  It  is 
rather  of  the  kind  that  is  based  upon  common  sense 
and  has  for  its  object  the  attainment  of  a  willing  and 
cheerful  obedience.  It  is  a  discipline  founded  more 
upon  the  French  system  which  causes  the  French  sol- 
dier in  the  trenches  to  speak  of  his  officer  as  "my  cap- 
tain."    That  is  the  kind  of  spirit  which  is  helpful. 

In  times  past  we  have  had  in  the  American  service 
too  much  of  the  loud  mouthed,  rasping  manner  tend- 
ing to  humiliate  the  young  soldier  and  to  lessen  his  self 
respect.  The  loud  and  profane  drill  sergeant  and  the 
inconsiderate,  overbearing  officer  do  great  injury  to  our 
service,  because  they  produce  dissatisfaction  and  discon- 
tent, and  hence  are  direct  causes  of  desertion.  Not  only 
that,  but  these  methods  on  the  part  of  even  a  few  offi- 
cers or  non-commissioned  officers  give  to  our  civilian 
population  a  bad  impression  of  army  methods.  The 
War  Department  has  done  everything  it  can  to  eliminate 
the  evils  above  outlined.  The  following  extract  from  a 
letter  of  instructions  from  the  War  Department,  dated 
December  i6,  1916,  shows  the  attitude  of  the  War  De- 
partment in  this  important  matter: 

"While  there  must  be  no  relaxation  in  discipline  in 
exacting  a  thorough  and  prompt  performance  of  mili- 
tary duty,  officers  when  dealing  with  subordinates  must 

74 


hear  in  mind  the  absolute  necessity  of  avoiding  language 
and  remarks  or  gestures  which  tend  to  lessen  self- 
respect.  This  is  all  important  if  we  are  to  have  a 
cheerful,  willing,  and  efficient  army.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  adopt  a  tone  of  voice  or  manner  different  from 
that  usually  employed  in  general  conversation,  and  espe- 
cial care  must  be  taken  against  sarcasm  and  unneces- 
sary public  rebuke.  These  faults  while  more  often 
found  in  officers  new  to  the  service,  sometimes  exist  in 
others  of  more  experience.  Such  officers  are  unfit 
temperamentally  for  command  of  men." 


75 


SUMMARY 

The  best  grip  any  officer  can  have  on  the  Ameri- 
can soldier  is  on  his  pride.  Therefore,  do  every- 
thing possible  to  build  up  the  soldier's  pride  in 
himself  and  in  his  record.  Constantly  appeal  to 
him  to  keep  a  clean  and  an  honorable  record. 

Treat  the  American  soldier  as  a  man;  look  him 
squarely  in  the  eye  when  you  talk  to  him,  and  treat 
him  justly. 

Never  do  anything  to  lessen  the  respect  of  the  sol- 
dier for  himself.  Never  put  a  young  soldier  in  the 
guard-house  if  it  is  possible  to  avoid  it.  Many  a 
young  soldier  gets  started  wrong  by  being  kept  in 
the  guard-house  with  bad  men  who  are  confined 
there  because  they  can  be  managed  in  no  other 
way. 

As  far  as  possible  use  company  punishment.  Men 
respect  an  officer  more  who  is  able  to  handle  his 
men  without  having  to  use  outside  means  for  dis- 
cipline. To  be  able  to  run  your  company  yourself 
is  a  great  asset;  be  careful  not  to  lose  it. 

Give  short  talks  to  men  on  subjects  which  they 
ought  to  know.  Be  sure  the  talks  are  short.  Have 
something  to  say;  say  it;  then  stop. 

Teach  the  soldier  to  have  proper  respect  for  his 
uniform.  Teach  him  that  if  he  becomes  reeling 
drunk  in  his  uniform  or  wears  it  to  low  dives  he 
brings  discredit  upon  himself  and  upon  the  uni- 
form of  his  country. 

1^ 


7-  Be  extremely  careful  about  your  manner  in  dealing 
with  soldiers ;  they  are  entitled  to  a  respectful  and 
patient  hearing.  Some  officers  seem  to  go  on  the 
theory  that  military  efficiency  consists  in  a  loud 
voice  and  an  impatient  manner. 

8.  Don't  attempt  to  gain  cheap  popularity  by  un- 
officerlike  acts.  Soldiers  are  not  slow  to  size  up 
an  officer.  They  soon  learn  whether  his  interest 
in  his  men  is  feigned  or  real.  They  respect  and 
admire  the  officer  who  requires  a  strict  perform- 
ance of  duty.  The  true  rule  for  handling  soldiers 
is :  Don't  nag  them ;  don't  neglect  them ;  don't 
coddle  them. 

9.  Put  responsibility  for  the  squad  squarely  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  corporal  of  the  squad.  Make  him 
look  after  every  detail — instruction,  equipment, 
dress,  neatness,  general  appearance,  behavior. 

10.  Train  the  lieutenants  and  the  sergeants  to  have  an 
interest  in  company  administration  by  supervising 
details.  When  anything  goes  wrong  call  in  the 
sergeant  and  the  corporals  whose  place  it  was  to 
see  about  it.  If  Private  Smith  has  grease  spots 
on  his  coat  and  long  hair  at  inspection,  see  why 
Corporal  Jones  and  Sergeant  Brown  had  not  at- 
tended to  those  details. 

ri.  Look  carefully  after  the  company  mess.  Much  of 
the  discontent  in  a  company  is  founded  upon  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  food  and  the  way  it  is  served. 


12.  Do  everything  possible  to  provide  legitimate 
amusements  and  recreation.  Young  men  cannot  be 
kept  contended  within  the  bare  walls  of  the  bar- 
rack building.  Baseball  and  out-of-door  sports 
afford  a  good  opportunity  for  the  activities  of 
young  lieutenants. 

13.  If  there  are  many  new  men  in  the  company  say  a 
word  or  two  to  them  about  writing  home  to  par- 
ents, and  to  caution  them  in  regard  to  home- 
sickness. 

4.  Be  an  optimist;  cultivate  that  habit.  There  are 
some  men  who  always  see  their  troubles  with  great 
clearness.  They  are  always  afraid  that  things  will 
not  turn  out  just  right.  The  man  who  is  an  op- 
timist is  like  a  breath  of  fresh  air.  He  cheers  all 
who  come  around  him.  One  of  the  great  sayings 
of  Lord  Nelson  was :  "I  am  not  come  forth  to 
find  difficulties  but  to  remove  them." 

15.  Try  not  to  become  a  critic  or  a  "knocker."  When 
once  a  matter  has  been  settled  put  your  energies 
into  the  question  of  how  you  can  best  carry  out 
both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  order. 

16.  If  any  man  deserts  from  your  company  and  you 
have  never  spoken  to  him  in  warning  against  com- 
mitting that  crime  the  blame  for  his  desertion  is 
partly  yours.    You  have  not  done  your  duty. 

17.  If  any  company  officer  cannot  call  every  man  of 
his  company  by  name  he  should  get  busy  at  once. 

78 


The  officer  who  wants  to  succeed  must  be  loyal  to 
those  above  him.  He  is  then  on  solid  ground  for 
expecting  it  from  those  below  him. 

Don't  let  a  new  made  corporal  feel  that  he  has  a 
permanent  job  regardless  of  effort.  Establish  com- 
petition   between    squads.      Promote    the    corporal 
who  makes  the  best  showing  and  relieve  at  oncC_ 
those  who  are  worthless. 

The  value  of  any  officer  to  the  Government  de- 
pends in  large  part  upon  how  much  attention  he 
gives  to  duty.  It  is  not  how  much  ability  an  offi- 
cer has  but  how  well  he  uses  what  he  does  have 
that  determines  his  value  to  the  Government. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  officer  to  prove  his  title  and 
his  worth  by  exhibiting  superior  knowledge.  No 
organization  will  long  respect  an  officer  who  has 
not   the  knowledge   properly  to   instruct  his   men. 

Remember  Napoleon's  maxim,  that  in  war  the 
moral  is  to  the  physical  as  three  to  one.  Strive  to 
arouse  a  proper  spirit  in  the  men  individually  and 
in  the  organization  as  a  collective  unit.  Not  much 
success  can  be  hoped  for  unless  the  proper  spirit 
is  aroused. 

Listen  attentively  to  suggestions  of  Sdbordinates. 
Invite  recommendations  for  improvements.  This 
is  a  good  way  to  create  and  maintain  the  interest 
of  subordinates. 

79 


24.  Encourage  initiative  on  th*e  part  of  subordinate 
Do  this  by  apportioning  or  assigning  work.  Le 
them  do  the  work  under  your  own  supervision. 

25.  Justice  and  promptness  are  the  foundations  o 
mihtary  discipHne  and  military  efficiency.  It  take; 
a  level  headed  man  to  maintain  discipline  and  ye'i 
have  every  man  feel  that  he  has  had  a  square  deal 

26.  Teach  the  soldiers  to  be  neat  in  person  and  clean 
and  SQber  in  their  lives.  Force  of  example  is  the 
greatest  of  all  aids  in  this  respect. 

27.  Prohibit  the  use  of  dirty,  vulgar  language.  Punish 
offenders  and  see  that  your  instructions  are  car- 
ried out. 

28.  There  is  something  to  be  done :  the  efficient  officer 
sets  to  work  earnestly  and  loyally  to  do  it,  over- 
coming obstacles  as  he  goes  along.  The  inefficient 
officer  either  does  nothing,  or  spends  his  time  dis- 
cussing difficulties  or  in  suggesting  some  other 
plan  more  to  his  liking. 

29.  Our  Army  Regulations  state  that :  "Courtesy  among 
military  men  is  indispensable  to  discipline."  Noth- 
ing is  more  derogatory  to  our  military  service  than 
the  inconsiderate  overbearing  officer  who  imagines 
that  brusqueness  is  a  mark  of  efficiency.  The  kind 
of  courtesy  needed  is  that  which  springs  from  the 
heart  and  not  the  thin  veneer  of  official  formality. 


80 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


i3Jan'S37F 

RtzCIT'  L,iD 

JAN  4    1963 

nt^T'n       MAR  1  S 

1982 

'^saoso 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


